Hidden
by Nubia
Summary: Bound to a prophecy unknown, Tori is sucked into a world of daring, adventure, secrets, hidden as one of the Own. Read as she struggles to find the truth about herself and the connection with the man who murdered her brother. [Third in series][COMPLETE]
1. Prologue

AN: okay, this is he same as the second epilogue of Avenger, yes I know. But I wanted to circulate that story one last time. So, here is the epilogue to my newest story in the Novellee series. This is about her daughter. And no, the child doesn't stay a child through the whole story. Enjoy!

Prologue

Novellee smiled up at her husband Burdock as the maid took her baby from the room. The second child had been born a girl, a beautiful baby girl with her father's face and green eyes. Burdock leaned down and kissed her sweaty forehead and she sighed, relaxing back into her pillows.

It had been a hard labor, and according to the doctor, her last. But she was glad that she had two children she could lavish her love on. And Ciem would bond wonderfully with his new sister. Maybe they could even have what she had with her brother. Wouldn't that be wonderful? she thought as she drifted into sleep.

Burdock watched his wife as she slept, sighing peacefully. He had never thought he would be the father of two children, royal ones at that. But his heart had known, and loved them both dearly. He didn't know what he would do without either of them. They were his world, as was his wife. And seeing the little girl that was a mirror to him had nearly drowned him in emotion.

He smiled as he smoothed a hand over his wife's brow, thinking of the little girl. He loved his son, would enjoy teaching him how to be a knight, how to fight, and to be a gentlemen. But there would always be a special bond between him and his daughter. As would be with her mother.

When the door opened with a squeak, he raised his eyes to the maid. And his heart stopped.

"What is it?" he demanded, coming nervously to his feet. Novellee stirred but did not wake.

"The baby," the nurse sobbed out, putting a fist to her mouth to quiet herself. "The babies been kidnapped, your majesty."

"No," Burdock whispered, as he fell back in his chair, clutching his heart. "No."

The newborn baby stirred in the blanket wrapped tightly around it, keeping her warm. She raised her fists as she wailed, wanting to be comforted. The nurse that held her stuffed a pacifier in her mouth and continued hurriedly down the street to where the man had told her to meet him.

Her breath was hitching as she repeatedly looked behind her, searching the crowd for people following her. She was sure that the palace guards were behind her, chasing her, wanting to capture her so that they could kill her.

The child in her arms was proof of her loss of innocence.

"Wench, over here!" a gruff voice called from an alley. She ducked down it, the child close to her chest.

"Do you have it?" she asked in a breathy voice. The man nodded and gave her the ring, which she slipped onto a chain and around the child's neck.

"May the Gods watch over you," she whispered as she handed the child to the man. He nodded, and moved out into the crowd, and onto the waiting boat that would take them to Tortall.

She sighed as the child was taken out of her sight. She couldn't say that she was glad that she had been of help to the man. No one liked being wrapped in a prophecy that they didn't even know the contents of.

All she could say was that she hoped the move to Tortall was good for the child. She found it hard to believe that the prophecy was even really real. She had worked for the palace for many years, and she knew that the royal family was a good kind people.

But the rules held for servant that she must obey any nobles command. Even if it was against her country. It was a stupid rule, and she knew that the majesty's were working on changing it. But the rule was still in action. So, if she was caught, she was dead.

She shivered darkly at the thought and turned back to the castle. No one would ever know that it had been her. She certainly wasn't telling, and the noble was on his way to Tortall, so she was safe.

But would she be able to live with herself, for what she had done? For the hardships the royal family would suffer now that their baby girl was gone from them?

AN: Okay, tell me what you think about this new addition.

Nubia


	2. Chapter One

A/N So here's the first chapter of the new sequel. I hope you like it.

Chapter One:

The bustle and noise of the bar washed over Torianna as she and Robert sauntered into the building as if they owned that place. In truth she had never entered the capital, let alone the bar before, but she was feeling a sense of pride in Robert.

Today, he had been admitted into the Own. He smiled at her as they chose a seat at the back of the room, the only table left open. She looked briefly to his hand where she ring rested. She had given it to him for good luck on the entrance exams.

The ring itself she didn't believe was lucky. The only reason she kept it was because it was the only possession she had left of her parents. The only thing she had that could one day lead her back to them. It wasn't special in any other way. She had had it appraised to assure herself of that fact many times. It was made out of regular old gold found in any country with a regular old emerald found in any country as a centerpiece to the ring. The fact the green in the emerald matched her eyes held no significant information. It was, quite simply, an ordinary ring.

But if Robert wanted to wear the ring it was fine by her. She had no real use for it. It wasn't like her family would come looking for her. They hadn't so far and she was seventeen already. She sniffed, pushing back the sad thoughts. She was here to celebrate her friend's accomplishment.

Not that his accomplishment was supposed to make her happy. She had been raised with this man, as his constant companion. They were like blood, they were so close. With him entering the Own, not only would they be separated, but also she would be out of a job. Most likely, Robert's father would hire her to take care of Robert's younger siblings, but it simply wouldn't be the same.

"Smile Tori!" Robert laughed, grabbing her hand and squeezing it in his excitement. Tonight was the night, he thought as he stared at his lovely companion. The night that he told the woman of his dreams how he really felt. It wasn't just her luscious golden brown locks or enchanting green eyes that had stolen his heart so many years ago, but her sparkling personality and charming wit. Tonight, he would ask her to marry him.

"Tori, I want to ask you—"

"Robert!" someone called as he stepped to the table and smacked Robert on the shoulder, causing him to jostle the cup of mead in his hand. He turned to look up at the man that had newly been made a friend. Tori looked also and was immediately captured. His dusty-blond hair fell across his face and into his cool greenish-brown eyes. His mouth, generous in shape was open in a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He looked to her and her breath caught before she smiled back at him.

"Who's this?" the man asked, never taking his eyes off of Tori. She challenged his stare, unflinching.

"This is Tori. Tori, this is my commanding officer, Derek," he gestured with his hand and Tori nodded once. Derek stared for a second longer, as if imprinting her face in his mind, then turned to Robert and didn't take notice of her again.

"Here to celebrate are you?" Derek asked inquiringly, one eyebrow rising fractionally.

"Yes. You?" Robert's arm slunk around Tori's shoulders as he spoke. She didn't notice for a table had caught her attention across the room where a husband and wife sat with their two small children.

"The same. My sister was just chosen to be Sir Raoul's squire. Following in my mother's footsteps, much as I followed in my fathers, you could say," he laughed and Robert laughed along with him. Tori laughed to, but it was because the younger of the two children at the table had fallen asleep and had plopped his head on his food plate for a pillow.

"Speaking of which, I should get back to them before they become to amorous in their drinking," he grinned sharply then turned to Tori once more. "It was a pleasure meeting you."

She nodded not really taking into account the fact that he had spoken to her, for the second child had begun poking his brother, trying to wake him. Her heart fluttered and she sighed. It had always been one of her dreams to have kids of her own.

Robert heard the sigh and his anger was sparked, thinking she was sighing after Derek.

"Now, Tori," Robert asked, tugging on her shoulder, willing to ignore the fact that she had showed interest in another man, getting her to look at him once more. "Won't you miss me while I'm gone?" he asked, hoping to ease into the question that he had been fretting over all day.

"Of course I'm going to miss you Robert. We've never been separated for so long before. And you know that I think of you as my brother of the heart," she smiled and patted his cheek in affection. She turned to grab her drink and missed the sharp disappointment in his face.

"I don't think of you as a sister," he said, trying to ease towards the subject once more. He saw that it hadn't worked when a hurt look entered her eyes.

"Oh, well then," she said quietly. She had always thought they had been so close, but she supposed the feelings could have been one sided. But it still hurt. "Why not?"

"Because," he began, sure that they were on the right track now, leaning closer to her. "I could never kiss my sister."

She was silent for a moment, staring at him closely. He was disappointed again when she laughed her delicious, tinkling laugh. "Oh, Robert. It's so like you to play these jokes on me. Of course you wouldn't kiss your sister. Why would you want to?"

She turned away again and grabbed for her drink. But Robert wasn't to give up. Who would he be if he didn't fight to the last for the woman he loved? But before he had a chance to begin again, a man strode to the table and bowed, grabbing Tori's hand, kissing it. "Milady, would you care to dance?"

Red filled Robert's eyes as Tori's delighted laughter filled his ears; he had never been one to control his temper. But this was the last straw. She ignored him, shut him down at every turn, and then flaunted other men in his face? He wouldn't stand for that.

Tori was on the verge of politely refusing when Robert cut in making the decision for her. "She's taken. Get out of my sight before I have to hurt you." The man obviously decided that he'd rather not pick a fight and retreated into the crowd.

"That was awfully rude of you Robert," she said, turning to face him. She saw the rage in his eyes and sighed. He had always been quick to take to temper and never easy at controlling it. They were in for a fight, she knew, and prayed that she could keep the upper hand and her feelings unhurt.

"You'd rather dance with him then spend our last night together with me?" he demanded in a loud voice, drawing the attentions of the people closer to them. She sighed, and fought against the flush in her cheeks.

"Of course not. I was simply saying that it could have been said in a nicer way," she tried for a calm, easy voice, but Robert was having none of it.

"Don't use that voice with me Torianna. I don't need to be placated. What I need is to be reassured that you're faithful to me. And only me!" he seethed at her. She could have rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Robert. Of course, Robert. You know I'm faithful to only you," she said in a mundane, singsong voice. His tantrums, she mused, seemed to be all alike. So alike, in fact, that with the slightest modifications due to circumstances she could use the same lines over and over and he would always end up soothed. Cheered slightly, she grinned. A mistake on her part.

"You liar," he hissed, seeing her amused grin and mistaking it for a deceiving one. She cringed at the tone. This was about to get ugly.

"Come, Robert, lets discuss this outside, away from the horde of staring people," and indeed they were staring. His voice had drawn a crowd by now, a large one, including the man that she had been recently introduced to and his family.

"Are you sleeping with him?" he demanded. She looked back at him bewildered by the statement. Where the heck had that come from?

"Who?" she asked in an innocent tone that only set him on edge.

"Don't play games with me Torianna. Here I am, trying to purpose to you and you're flaunting your men in my face like a common harlot!" her face flushed darkly, but she tried to stop the words from getting to her any way. Some one had to keep the upper hand here. And it looked like she was that someone. But the most she could hope for was disaster and not utter chaos.

"I don't know what you are talking about. Lets just go back to the inn and discuss this like two rational thinking people," her voice was calm, the eye of the storm. But it was too late.

"That man that asked you to dance, did he get you with child yet? I bet you think you're so clever, that I'm so stupid that I wouldn't notice? Well, guess what Tori, I noticed! You harlot!"

"Noticed what?" she yelled back, fighting the losing battle. Her temper was a mild thing until provoked. She stood with the force of the anger coming to life. "That some stranger asked me to dance and I was going to say no? Or the fact that you're being a total pompous ass?"

Robert stood also, but it was so he would have leverage when he struck her across the face. The blow snapped her head back, a hollow thunk sounding through the watching tavern. The blow seemed to bring Robert out of his rage, for the color left his cheeks as she slowly brought her head around to face him. All noise had fled and it was silent as a tomb in the tavern. The ring, her ring that he still wore on his finger, had left a gash in her cheek.

In a still, utterly emotionless voice she said into the sudden silence, "I'm returning to the inn, Robert. When you regain control on your temper, we'll talk this out. Until then, goodnight."

She turned, heading for the door and the crowd parted for her. Her back was ramrod straight as she walked, ignoring the stinging in her cheek and the tears in her eyes. When Robert called her name, she didn't turn back.

The fresh air of the night was sucked hurriedly into her lungs as she stepped into the refreshing darkness of the night. Robert soon followed her.

"Tori!" he called, running after her as she took the nearest turn. She had never been good with directions, and this seemed to prove it. She had walked into an alley. "Tori. I'm…I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things."

"No," she said back, in a voice thick with tears and hurt. "You shouldn't have. You shouldn't have hit me either, Robert."

"I know, and I'm sorry. It was just… I had something special planned for tonight, and everyone seemed to be getting in the way. I'm sorry for what I did," he said in a lame voice, his head bowed in shame.

"So you take it out on me? That hardly seems fair, Robert," she crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him. She was willing to forgive some things. But no one had ever struck her before. And she wasn't certain how to react to this outburst. It was almost as if he had been… jealous.

"It wasn't fair. And I should never have lost my temper. It wasn't your fault. And I should never have hit you. Can you forgive me?" he looked at her and knew the way to get to her would be to appeal to her humor. "I'll let you beat me up."

She laughed at that. They both knew she was terrible at hand fighting. Robert had spent hours trying to teach her how to, but she had never picked it up. She had never really picked up any of the skills that he had taught her. She could memorize the patterns and the moves and put them to use fine. But when it came to hurting someone or dueling someone, she just couldn't do it. She didn't have the drive to want to win. Quite frankly, she didn't care.

"I guess I could beat you up," she offered him a smile, and he knew that he was back in her good graces. Tori had never been one to hold a grudge for long. "We should get you to a healer and have that bruise removed. I truly am sorry, Tori."

"I know. And I forgive you. But if you ever hit me again, Robert, I won't stick around long enough for you to say you're sorry. Is that clear?" she bunched her fists and stepped into a fighting stance, and he held up his hands in mock surrender. Torchlight made her ring on his finger glitter in the light. Something else glittered too.

Out of the dark from the street slashed a knife. It sank, like it moved through butter, into Robert's chest, striking the heart and killing him. The scream that she wanted to let free died in her throat as he fell to the ground, reaching for her.

"…T…Tori…" her name whispered from his lips. His dieing breath he had used to say the name of the woman he loved. She fell to her knees beside him, her hands fluttering around his body, wanting to sooth, to fix him, to make him come back to life.

Like seeing them through a mist, two men kneeled on the other side of Robert's body. She stared at them, her emerald eyes unnaturally bright in the sudden paleness of her cheeks. The men didn't seem to realize she was there for they began a conversation. She heard it s if from far away, the sound struggling through the shock that had captured Tori's mind.

"Is it him?" asked one. The white one, for she couldn't seem to make out any features accept that one's skin was white as snow, the other's dark as sin.

"Yep. I wasn't sure at first, in the bar, but when the light hit the ring, I knew. See?" he held up the hand that held the ring once used for luck, as if the sight of it held some significant meaning. And it must have for the other nodded.

A sudden noise pierced the deathly quiet of the alley and the two men leapt to there feet and continued down the alley and out of her sight. The sob escaped, the first of a long line of them. And with the sobs came the tears of utter despair.

The ring, she thought, as she reached for Robert's hand to pull it off. They had found him by the ring. Her ring. She looked at it, hatred in her eyes. For years it had done nothing, been recognized by no one. And now it had taken a life. She curled her hand into a fist around the ring, pressing its shape into her hand. If he hadn't been wearing it, he wouldn't be dead.

She would.

A shudder wracked down her spin as more noises came from the street. The people who had killed her brother of the heart had been looking for her. Had wanted to kill her. Which meant, when they found out they had killed someone other then her, they would come looking.

And she would have to deal with them somehow. She would have to find them first, figure out what they wanted from her, figure out why they wanted to kill her. And then kill them first.

Her hand reached out for the knife, the only thing they had left behind, besides the haunting memories of Robert's death. She knew nothing about them. But maybe the knife would tell her something. The knife was in her hand when someone entered the alleyway and saw her.

"You're the girl, from the tavern. The one that got hit. What are you doing on the ground?" her eyes got round, as she looked at her and saw the blood. The woman's scream paralyzed her, made it all real. She wasn't the only one who saw the death, the blood, and that made it real. Her last unconscious hope that it was all a nightmare flickered and died.

She looked down once more at the man that had been her closet friend, her beloved brother, his face still, his eyes lifeless. A single tear, the last one, leaked from her eye, rolled down her cheek, and dripped onto Robert's face.

Slowly, keeping ring and knife in firm grasps, she rose and headed into the night, her back stiff, her face still. She would find them, and she would kill them. For when she found them, she would have the skills that the Own would teach her.

She was to become the first woman to enter the Own under the guise of a man.

Derek and his father, Dom, clattered into the alley and nearly tripped over the body. He looked up in search of the assailant and saw a shadow of a woman disappearing in the night.

He looked down at the body and saw whom it was. The man who had been recently accepted into the Own. "How?"

Dom knelt down beside the body and studied for a few seconds before looking up at his son. "Knife, straight into the heart."

"She must have had good aim," he said dismissively as he looked back into the alley where the girl had been. It had to have been her. She was the only one that had been with him. And they had had an open dispute.

"She who?" Dom asked as he rose to his feet. "We'll have to find his parents and arrange for a burial."

"The girl he was with, Torianna," Derek looked back at Robert. He was fairly certain he would never see the girl again. She would high tail it out of there after committing a murder. A girl who let herself be pushed around in public didn't admit to murder.

"Think so?" Dom asked, turning his full attention on his son.

"Doesn't matter now. She's gone."

If only he knew the truth.

A/N Review me!

Nubia


	3. Chapter Two

A/N Here you go guys, and thanks for the reviews. Ohand anything that you recognize from a published book I do not own. There. Enjoy the latest chapter!

Chapter Two:

Her hands, she noted as she clasped the paper firmly between them, were shaking. She could understand why. She was about to commit treason on the country and enter the Own under false pretenses. She was taking her life in her own hands and handing in the papers to Sir Raoul, the papers that had been meant for Robert.

One trembling hand reached to the middle of her chest, were the ring rested on a bronze chain under the corset that bound her breasts. She had chosen to keep the cursed thing, hoping maybe it had only good luck left in it, after killing her brother.

She sighed, straightened her back and checked her hair in the mirror once more, making sure that none of the brown hair had escaped the bun and peeked through from underneath her expensive black wig, and knocked on the door to the room.

The barked answer to enter had her flinching, but she continued into the room, her eyes wide with anxiety. She had no idea that as she looked in on Raoul, who scowled at her, that she looked like a frightened little boy.

"What?" he demanded in a sharp tone. This was the fourth person to interrupt his alone time today and he wasn't at all happy about that fact. He snapped the papers out of the quaking hands, and grunted at the papers.

Tori startled at the grunt. She knew that the papers were in order, and they had no specific name on them, for the instructor that had given Robert the papers had explained that they were only preliminary papers. Robert, and now she in his place, would get the formal papers from Raoul, the ones with all the names on it. Raoul, who had never seen her or Robert before, would think nothing of this. Or so Robert had explained to her.

"Well, you look like a little boy, but it seems you're quite capable. Report to Derek of Masbolle, commander of the Special Forces squad."

Her face paled even more. She knew that name. That was the name of the man she had been introduced to by Robert. She nodded and left the room, her entire body trembling now. Discovery was just around the corner, she thought, and it would be off with her head. She had seen her face in the mirror and the wig did little to disguise who she was. She knew that if anyone who had known herbefore saw her now, they would recognize her without hesitation.

She tucked her chin into her chest as she walked, hoping to draw as little attention to herself as she possibly could. If people noticed her, they would start to see how unmanly she was. For indeed, she had no idea how men acted or how to act like one. She knew even less about how to be a warrior.

"Look out boy!" a rough voice called. She startled and jumped back as a horse trampled the grass where she had stood seconds before. Some how, her feet had carried her outside and into the training courts. She looked up at the man that was in control of the horse and saw him. Derek.

"What do you want?" he asked, in a rough voice, but one not unkind. For several paralyzing seconds she thought he had seen straight through her façade, but his eyes, she saw were fastened on the papers in her hand. He grabbed the papers from her hands when she stretched them up to him.

"A new recruit, aye? What's your name?" he said, looking down at her with a frown. She truly looked like a frightened little boy, driven into a corner with no escape.

"Torick sir!" she replied having picked the name before coming here. She had pickedaname that was close to her own, making it easier for her to remember it and respond to it.

"Report to Domiar in the stables. He'll get you set up with all the gear you need for Special Forces. And welcome to the Own."

He handed her back a single paper, one stating what rank she would be in and she tucked it into her pocket, bowed to him, and began the short walk to the stables. She felt his eyes one her back the entire way.

When she entered the stables she took a moment, resting against the now closed door, gathering her wits. Seeing him had brought the entire thing back. She had lived with the constant pain in her heart sincehis deatha week ago, but she had become adept at not acknowledging the hurt. But seeing him, seeing Robert's friend made it all real, all so close to the surface.

The tears welled, ones that she had been fighting back all week. She wished she could cry, but she knew that she couldn't. She had to be strong, for Robert's sake, And for her own. She sighed once, a long, forlorn sound in the quiet of the stables before pushing herself from the door and into the torchlight within.

As she walked slowly down the center of the stables, each horse seemed to look out at her, and the intelligence she saw in their eyes spooked her, but she couldn't help admiring their beauty. Each one was fit for a noble, she thought, then suppressed a laugh. Of course they were, this was the King's Own! One horse, in particular caught her attention. This one didn't look at her from the stall; it didn't even seem to notice her presence.

She wandered closer to the stall, expecting to find another beauty of a horse. But when she looked, she saw it was just a plain brown horse, with plain brown mane and tail and dull brown eyes. He was a normal horse in every aspect, and she found herself taking a liking to it. It must have liked her too because he stretched out his head and nuzzled her shoulder.

"Can I help you?" a voice demanded sharply. Tori turned and handed him the papers in the same movement. It was only after he had begun looking at them that she realized she had no idea who he was. She had handed her papers to a total stranger. Her face wanted to flush with embarrassment at her folly, for surely he would realize her mistake also and laugh at her for it.

She stared at him, mapping out his facial features and expressions in her mind. His skin was very pale, as if he didn't spend much time in the sun, and his hair was almost as white as snow.

"I'm Domiar," he told her, looking up from the paper before pocketing it. "And you are?"

"Torick."She could have sighed with relief at the fact that she hadn't screwed up, but set to scolding her self silently instead. She was to easily able to trust, she would have to break that habit. "I'll outfit you for the Special Forces. You'll be needing two horses. You can take that one, as he seems to like you," he nodded to the horse she had just been studying and grinned at her. She pulled back from him, for, for a few seconds, he had looked like the demon, the white one that had haunted her dreams.

"Follow me," he said in a gentle voice, as if he had noted her fear, seen it one her face or in her eyes, and was determined to sooth it. But she wouldn't allow herself to be pulled in by a simpled smile and a kind voice. She was alone now, she had to take care of herself, make careful judgments or it would all be over. She followed him, two steps behind.

"I see you've been entered into Special Forces. That's the highest rank within the Own short of commanding. Derek must really feel the need torture the new recruits to put you in there with such light testing. You'll be crushed the first day. But I'm sure you won't be the last to enter, maybe even not the weakest one. We'll be having over two hundred more recruits entering with in the week. You're one of the first. I'll show you around the place, get you settled and in a few days, you can begin your training. Now, do you have any experience at all, in any sort of weapons?"

"Yes, some," she answered in a rough voice that she had adopted for the purpose of blending in further. She decided to ingore the slight he had handed her on her weak apperance. She knew it was true.

"Good, that'll make it easier on you when Derek begins his training, if you have some experience. What weapons would they be?" he asked, leading her out of one building and towards another.

"Swords, knifes, bows, but manly staffs. Some hand-to-hand, but I'm not very good at that," she answered in a clipped tone, sounding as if she knew what she was talking about.

"Good. This is the mess hall for the Own," he told her as they entered the building. She looked up to see rows and rows of tables and benches, some occupied by Own soldiers, most empty. At the far end of the vast room, she could see a serving window that led into the kitchen area.

"And through this door is the armory for the Own," Domiar continued, walking farther into the mess hall. She saw a door present to the side and followed him through it, into the armory. It was a large room, almost as big as the one she had just left. The walls were lined with weapons of every size, shape and kind imaginable. Her eyes rounded comically at the sight of so many weapons in such a variety.

"Take your pick," Domiar gestured with a nod of his blonde head, an amused grin on his face. "One of each weapon you can handle."

She nodded, her eyes narrowing in determination as she walked slowly down the length of each wall, making sure to look at each weapon to assess it's value fully. She stopped when she came upon a certain sword. It was small, and light, she noted, as if made for a woman. She grabbed it carefully from the wall, the handle sliding into her grip easily. It fit perfectly. The sword was made of the finest metal she had ever seen, the hilt of silver. At the base of the hilt, the pommel was fashioned as a jewel, an emerald, fitted so the sharp point of the emerald faced down. She knew it had been placed just so with the thought of hitting someone over the head with it.

"Give it a test swing," Domiar said quietly, watching as she handled the sword. Her eyes seemed to glow as she gave it a sharp flick, twisted to the side to lunge, and then rounded towards him with a slash.

She froze as she faced him, a memory coming to the surface, a memory not her own. It was of a woman, a powerful one, that had held the sword as she held it now, had wielded the sword, as she did now, and had claimed the emerald because the color had matched her eyes, as they matched Tori's.

"Is that the one then?" Domiar asked, startling her from the vision, if it could be called that. She nodded, and silently took the leather scabbard from the wall and slid the sword home, not so certain she wanted to keep the sword. She knew the vision had come from it. But it had been shown to her for a reason. She debated whether or not to keep it, but the decision was taken out of her hands. Domiar was motioning for her to pick out a staff and she rushed to do so.

For now, she thought as she viewed to different selections, she would keep the sword.

Zahib bowed before the man who sat elegantly in a chair at the very head of the small, enclosed room. He wanted to hunch his shoulders to try and defend himself from his master's wrath, but his pride wouldn't allow it.

"Tell me again," his master's soft voice hissed at him, "Tell me again how it is that you killed the wrong person?"

Zahib took a deep breath before answering, sending up a silent prayer to the God's. "He was wearing the ring, master. The one that you described to us. When we saw it, we just assumed that he was the one."

"Did you also _assume_ that I was wrong?" he drew out the word Zahib had used as if it was a curse in itself. Zahib flinched and felt his partner Keith do so as well.

"No master, it was just that in the excitement of doing as you commanded us—"

"I commanded you to kill a girl! Not a man! You did not do as I commanded and the girl has escaped!"

"Girl?" Keith asked, looking up at the master, directly disobeying the master's command. But, Zahib could only shake his head. Keith was not the smartest. "There was a girl with him. Remember Zahib? She was the one that got slapped!"

"Girl?" the master thundered, rising to his feet to pace, his anger at full boil now. "The girl was there and you still killed the wrong person? She was within your grasp and you let her go? What am I to do with you?"

"But master, why is she so important. She's only a woman," Keith said and Zahib knew he was doomed. His prediction came true when the master's elegant white hand lashed out, striking Keith across the face, knocking him several feet back.

"Of course she's a girl! And she's far stronger then she seems. She has the prophecy behind her. And if she does not die, she will—" he cut himself off before he revealed to much. "Tell me what this girl looked like, Zahib," the master demanded after a small pause.

"Brown hair and green eyes. A normal girl. Nothing special about her at all," he said with hidden relish. He didn't believe he had anything to fear. She was just a helpless woman, after all. Hadn't he seen her take a hit in the middle of the tavern, degraded and humiliated before his very eyes? What could the master have to fear of her?

"Did you get a good look at her?" the master said once more in his hissing voice. He was plotting, Zahib thought, and at a very fast pace.

"Yes, master," he answered quietly.

"Would you be able to recognize her?" the master hissed again.

"Yes, master," Zahib answered again.

"Then go, and find her. And when you find her, bring her to me and I will be the judge of whether you are worthy of my forgiveness. Go now, but remember, you screw up once more, Zahib, and I will take your life as punishment."

Zahib left hurriedly after bowing to his master, all to eager to be away.

Far away across many oceans, he sat in his ancient chair at the ancient desk surrounded by thousands of ancient scrolls piled around him. He was focused on one, open and centered on his desk, reading one line over and over, memorizing it for it was key to the turning of the prophecy, rocking back and forth in his concentration. She had reached the fork, he thought as he read the line once more. She had come to the choosing of one path over another. One destiny over another. One death over another. He stared as if reading the right path would makethe choice for her.

_She will be presented with the choice. If she chooses to keep the ancients sword her path shall be thus…But if she chooses to reject the sword, her path shall be death._

He shuddered as he watched the scroll change, watched the second path of the fork slowly fade from sight. She had accepted the sword, things were going as planned. His gentle rocking stopped and he leaned back, allowing himself a moments rest before another prophecy gripped him and he was forced to write once more.

Such was the life of a prophet, such was _his _life. It was becoming harder and harder for him to concentrate on anything other then the prophecies that ruled his life. But he would always have time for this one, his first.

A vision came and all thought was lost as his hand began to write on a blank sheet of parchment. But niggling at the back of his mind was the memories of the girl, the girl that had given him his first, and most treasured vision.

A/N okay, one thing to clear up. At the part _her path shall be thus…_I purposely left out her path, because I don't want to reveal it yet. So, yeah, there you go. Review me!

Nubia


	4. Chapter Three

Thanks for the reviews! Here's the latest for you. Hot off the press.

Chapter Three:

Tori sighed as she returned to the barracks, a bag packed with the rest of Robert's possessions slung over her shoulder. Her very, very sore shoulders, she thought with a stifled groan as it thunked to the floor beside her new bed. Domiar had assigned it to her, the only one left open in Derek's squad's assigned area. It was, unfortunately located right next to Derek's bed, meaning she would be around him even more, under his eyes.

She didn't know if she could handle to constant struggle to maintain a man's role. Butthe bedwas also located right next to the door that led to the Own bath's. She really didn't know whether to bless her fortune or curse it. She settled with shoving at her pack with her foot, pushing it under the bed towards the wall.

Her weapons and armor had been placed on the wrack above her bed. Every bed had one, just like everybed had a trunk at the end to store things such as clothes or equipment like books and scrolls and tents in. She wouldn't put Robert's things in there. It would be to noticable.

She sat, allowing her shoulders to relax and then slump, as she was alone in the barracks. With a sigh, she flopped onto her back on the lumpy bed, closing her eyes, her breathing softening. A nap wouldn't be so bad, she thought as her eyes fluttered. She turned onto her side, curling into a small ball as she drifted off into sleep, and then farther, into nightmares.

She could see his face, his lovely laughing face. He was watching her, calling to her, opening his arms into a hug, a big loving hug. She fell into his arms, or tried to, but he wasn't there.

She was standing alone, looking down at her hands. There was blood. On her hands. It covered her hands, her arms, her dress. There was no escaping the blood. She heard a moan and turned to see him.

There he stood as she last remembered seeing him, his throat cut, his eyes dieing, his hands reaching for her. Green light began to tint her vision, coming at her from the east, blinding her vision of Robert, yet making him stand out all the better. And then, he began to scream, filling her ears with a peircing wail that was anything but natural. It sent shivers down her spin and had her turning from him in the dream, running from him. But the wail always followed her. Always.

Tori sat up with as gasp, her lungs heaving for air. She scrambled on the bed until she sat with her feet touching the floor. For one blinding second she thought she would jump to her feet and run, just run and never look back, until she had outdistanced the horror that so newly haunted her.

Instead, she gripped the edge of the bed, forcing her breathing to calm, her heart to stop its race. She closed her eyes briefly, gathering everything together until she was calm once more. When she opened her eyes, it was to a new look, and to eyes, greenish-brown with dusty blond falling into them. She was confused for a second before it all came rushing back to her, the fact that she was in the Own now, and not alone.

"Sir," she whispered in her husky voice, a greeting even though she was sure that he had seen her entire escapade, including her terror and weak shaking of fear. Humiliation stained her cheeks a pale red.

"It's time for breakfast," was all he said as he stood and moved off towards the exit. She sighed, huffing out her breath and trying to quell the utter embarrassment, but decided it was a lost cause. Instead, checking to see that she was alone, she stripped from her shirt into a clean one, then into clean britches.

At least he hadn't commented, she thought as she combed her fingers through the hair on the wig, making sure it was in place. A comment would have made it all the more unbearable. When all was deemed in place, she walked hurriedly towards the mess hall. She wanted to get a seat near the back where she could watch the different people enter. That and she didn't want to have to sit next to someone that she didn't know. It would be easier on her if people approached her, not the other way around.

When she entered the mess hall, she saw Derek standing in a short line with a tray in his hands. She followed his example and ended up behind him in line. He looked back at her with a peculiar expression before approaching the window. She didn't have to guess what it was for. When it was her turn at the window, she smiled at the older lady handing out food and was surprised when she blushed like a little girl. She smiled wider, thanked her and turned to find a seat.

The table in the very back was unoccupied so she scurried over to it and took a seat at the very end, closest to the wall. From there she had a perfect view of the comings and goings of the Own. She tried to examine every face that entered, but it was hard doing that and eating at the same time. And it wasn't long before she was given company.

"How's it going, kid?" Domiar asked as he sat with a loud thud next to her at the table. "Good so far?" he asked, looking directly at her.

She nodded hastily before returning to her vigil of the door. But all hope was lost for Domiar was speaking to her again. "Are you going to be joining the training?"

"Oh, I haven't thought on it. Why?" she asked, her voice quiet and calm though her heart was pounding. She didn't like that he was taking such an interest in her. It made her suspicious and uncertain. Did he know something about her? Something about who she truly was?

"Well, seeing how training doesn't officially start until the rest of the recruits arrive, if you were to practice with us, I was to tell Derek so as to inform him on what type of training we should be doing. Or, we could train one on one today, if you would like that?"

Tori thought on it for a moment. She hadn't really been planning at all to train today. She had wanted to hold it of for as long as possible before she had to do it. It wasn't that she didn't like training; it was just that she didn't enjoy beating on other people for hours on end. But she'd have to get used to it sooner or later, and sooner would be more productive then later.

"I guess I will train with the Own today, if that's alright?" she asked, finishing off the last of her breakfast as another group of people entered the mess hall. They waved and Domiar waved back, motioning them over to the table.

"Hello Domiar! Who's the boy?" one of the men asked, he was tall with black shaggy hair and piercing blue eyes. When they focused on her, she felt naked, as if they could see right into her soul, so she broke the eyes contact, taking in the other two people with him. They looked to be brothers, twins even, for they both had curled red hair and pale green eyes, along with almost exact facial features. One, though, was considerably shorter then the other.

"This is Torick, a new recruit, in Derek's squad. He'll be training with us today. Torick, this Bradley, my fellow sub officer. The brothers are Terry and Mark. They're under my command."

"It's Tori really. No one calls me Torick. And it's a pleasure to meet you," she gave a polite smile that didn't come close to her eyes. She didn't like Bradley, not at all.

"Well, Tori, it's a pleasure to have you in the Own," Bradley said, in a silky smooth voice that tipped her off right away. Something someone had said had set him on edge. A bad edge. His eyes, she noted as she watched them closely kept flicking towards her chest.

"Bradley's from Serinda," Domiar continued and her ears perked. Serinda? She thought as she looked to his face once more. She had never met anyone from Serinda before. "He specializes in the Gift, what with them over there being so advanced and everything. You have any experience in the Gift, kid?"

"No," she said before hastily getting to her feet. "I'll go put my tray away," she stood and began moving towards the tray return, where she had seen others do so. She didn't want to deal with Bradley; she could smell a confrontation coming.

"Oh, and kid," Domiar called and she turned slightly so she could see him and the others. "We'll be starting in the sword courts. Do you know where that is?"

She shook her head and was about to say she would find it when a voice cut over hers. "I'll show little Tori where it is."

She could have cringed but she couldn't very well refuse. She nodded, dropped of the tray and turned to see Bradley right behind her. He took her elbow and began steering her from the hall and into the armory.

When the door closed behind them, she jerked out of his grasp and whirled to face him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Bradley hissed. "Little boys don't belong in the Own. One being they're weaker then men and more likely to get killed!"

"I'm no boy," she whispered vehemently, shaking at the thought that her disguise worked against her so terribly. No one would respect her or think her a warrior if she looked like a little boy. That and it was expected of her to take offense to the insult. That was why he had said it to her.

"And no little boy is going to outrank me without working for it. You don't belong in his squad. I do! What do you think you're doing?" Tori's head snapped back at his fierce tone. Hewas getting all worked up, she thought, staring as his face began to redden, and so easily.

"I'm getting trained. What are you doing?" she asked in a soft voice. She knew that would likely provoke him, but she wasn't sure what else to say. What could she say? She had never dealt with a situation like this before.

"It doesn't matter what I'm doing in the Own. What the hell do you think you're trying to prove by joining the Own and taking my spot in his squad?" he demanded, running his fingers through his hair. He had been sure that the position in Derek's squad would go to him. Imagine his surpirse and anger when that little pipsqueak had taken his spot.

"Why do you care about what I'm trying to porve? And besides, I can take care of myself. It's not like I have no training at all! I'm perfectly suitable for the position in his squad!" she crossed her arms over her chest, and huffed out her breath. She thought briefly of laughing at their absurd conversation, but dismissed it. It was truly absurd.

"Training? Training! Do you think that a few lessons at your fief will save you from getting killed or humiliated in battle? Derek wasted a spot, my spot, on you. I want you to leave. Leave willingly or I'll force you to."

"I can't leave!" she hissed. "And I know more then a few lessons. I know a lot more then a few lessons," she took a deep breath and gave out a proposition. "What if I beat you in a duel. A sword duel. Will you let me stay?"

Bradley snorted, not sure if he could lower himself to her level. But if she wanted a chance, he would give her one. That would save her from saying that he forced her out. She would have lost fair and square.

"Okay. We'll duel. I win, you leave. I lose, I'll let you stay in his squad," he smiled, thinking it would be a piece of cake to beat her. He was, after all, one of the best swordsmen in the Own

"And you won't hassle me again?" she demanded, a little taken aback by the smile, unsure of what she had gotten herself into. But she couldn't lose. She needed this, needed this place to hide and regroup.

"Right, I won't bother you again. If you win. Let's go," he nodded his head and she followed him out the door, across a training yard and into another building. This one was large, with a ringed of area in the middle. Along the outside of the ring were stands for people to sit, if they wished to watch the duel. A bucket off to the left of the entrance into the ring held several practice swords. She stepped into the ring, noticing the soft dirt under her feet and grabbed a sword. She noted the padding on the side rail and motioned to it with her head.

"Do we use the padding?" she asked, replacing the sword and reaching for another. This one fit better in her hand, and when she gave it a testing flick, she was happy with the way it felt.

"No, we don't need it. The first one to fall loses. Are you ready?" Bradley asked, moving into an opening stance. Tori, who had never been taught the conventional ways of proper dueling, nodded, watching his movements.

He started out easy, striking towards her middle, and she blocked it easily, turning his sword to the side, to far out to the left to be used. With lightening fast movement, she stepped into his guard, and smacked the flat of her sword across his ribs on the left side while he was trying to bring his sword back into the range of his body. The sudden change in pace and the blow knocked him off guard and he stumbled to the side, trying to regain his balance, her foot snaked out and tripped his foot, causing him to stumble more.

She swung at his back, hoping to get it over fast, but he turned and caught the blow on his sword and hurled her back. She stumbled back and to the side, coming out of his range of reach. Unknown to them both, the door to the building opened and the Own began filing in for training practice.

Tori watched as he advanced on her. The blow had hurt, if only a little, but his side would be stiff for a while. She chose that as her focal point. If she came at him from that side, he would be less able to bend to catch her blows. Another crucial point she noted as she prepared to strike was the fact that her sword was much lighter than his. She would be able to recover swings faster then he would.

When he was within reach, she took the lead, a mistake on her part, and swung in at him with a one-handed attack. He blocked her every blow, turning it to the side, but she was the one forcing him to retreat. With each step she took forward, he took one back. He was on defense purely.

She didn't know how to work from the offense. Whenever she had dueled with Robert, she had always been on the defense. That's how she had won. If she wanted to win now, she had to do the same.

She deliberately stumbled, allowing him to take a shot. She turned it aside and once again dodged into his guard hitting his left side again. Again he stumbled and she hit his arm with the flat of her sword, bruising the muscle. He would only be able to make one-handed attacks now, wearing him out faster, for his sword was heavier and made for two hands.

He must have known it too, for he began attacking harder, trying to tip her off balance. But he was falling into her trap again. She turned his blows to the side and for the third time in that duel, stepped into his guard and struck a blow to his side. He cried out this time, bringing down his arm in a reaction that was his down fall. The sword thunked across his shoulder as her small foot slipped out to trip him as the force of her blow caused him to tip over.

When he hit the ground, she slipped her sword to his throat and kicked his sword from his hand. "Looks like I stay," she whispered and he nodded. She let up the sword and helped him to his feet. The duel had taken less then ten minutes.

When applause reached her ears, she turned sharply to see the entire Own sitting in the stands. Her cheeks flamed crimson as she picked up Bradley's fallen sword and returned it to the bucket. She stepped out of the ring.

Derek was standing to the side of the door, watching her as she stepped out and tried to leave. He was standing in her way.

"Sir," she whispered as she bowed and tried to move past him, but he didn't budge. So she stood and waited for him to move.

"Where'd you learn to duel, boy?" he barked out in his rough voice. She jumped at the sudden sound. She hadn't expected him to be angry.

"My brother taught me, sir," she whispered, linking her hands in front of her. They twisted and gripped as they always did when she was nervous.

"Was he a knight?" he demanded, his voice slightly less rough.

"No, he was going to enter the Own himself. But due to… complications, I went in his place. Why, sir?" she asked looking up at him, one eyebrow raised in question.

"Those are a knights moves, boy. Was your brother taught by a knight?" he demanded again. He was always demanding, she thought, as she tried to remember the name of Robert's tutor. She had never met the man. And most of the moves that she had used today were adaptations off of moves that she had been taught. Robert had never been able to use the ones she could.

"I can't remember sir. I never met the tutor. I was only taught on the side, when Robert had time for me," she answered, her head lowering once more. She really wished that she could just leave now.

"Robert?" the sudden change in his voice had her head snapping up. Her eyes widened at the expression on his face and the slip-up she had made. She quickly lowered her head, trying to hide her face as she struggled to maintain a calm façade. Maybe he would think nothing of it.

"Yes, that's my brother's name. Robert," she said, slowly, measuring each word as it came out.

"What complication?" his voice had come under control, but she could still detect the strange sound in his voice from before.

"He was crippled by bandits last summer," she said hurriedly, to others sounding as if she wanted to spit out the horrid truth as fast as possible. It was really hurried because she had come up with it spur of the moment and rushed it in her eagerness to have an excuse.

"Oh, well… What were you doing out here, boy?" he asked, all trace of the strange emotion gone. It seems she had escaped that one by the skin of her teeth that time.

"We were having an argument that we needed to settle squarely, so we dueled it out. Sir," she answered him, her chin ducked down to her chest. She didn't see the gleam in his eyes.

"Dueling is not allowed. For punishment you'll work in the stables for three hours. After training, see me for additional instruction. Now, form lines everyone!" she nodded and rushed to do as he asked.

Several times during the day, she felt Bradley's eyes on her back.

* * *

Zahib sighed as he entered the tavern filled with his comrades and fellow bowers to the master. He signaled for a beer to the wench working before settling into a chair at the back of the room. No one would approach him until he gave them leave. In the tavern, he was the master and they were his bowers.

Soon, in his own time, he would relate to them what the master wanted from them, and he would send them out into the city to locate the girl and report back to him. Then he would capture her and have the glory all to himself. But for now, he would enjoy his beer and dream of one day defeating the master and becoming one himself.

A/N. There you are. One clearification. When I typed bower I meant it as bow-er, as in someone who bows to another. Hope you enjoyed and thanks again for the reviews. I really appreciate all them. Review me!

Nubia


	5. Chapter Four

A/N Here's the newest! Hope you enjoy it! And thanks for all my reviews.

Chapter Four:

The official training began one week later. And to Tori's surprise, it was nothing like the training she had endured the week before. It was harder. And more intense by far. Derek and his squad broke away from the rest of the Own to train by themselves.

Derek's squad consisted of eight hardened warriors, two of which were from the original squad, the other six had been moved up from another squad within the Own. She had seen them around the barracks and during the previous training sessions and she had seen why they were chosen to be put in Derek's squad. She and another young man who looked to be about twenty were the only two completely new to the Own.

As of the moment, they were standing in a line, facing the outside ring of a very large practice court. The look she had gotten of it told her that it was big enough to hold three of the courts she had trained in earlier. She wasn't quite sure what they needed that much space for, but she was willing to give it a shot.

Derek stepped into the building that housed the huge area and stepped in front of the line of soldiers. He looked each one over, stopping on her, for she was the last in line. He didn't have a smile on his face.

"Run three laps!" he barked in a rough voice, one that brooked no argument. She was slightly taken aback at the tone, but turned to run with the rest of them. She tried to keep the pace nice and easy, but everyone was running faster then her and she could hear Derek calling them to stick together, so she sped up.

By the time the third lap started, she was sick to her stomach and sucking for air like a fish out of water. And the soldiers in front of her hadn't slackened their pace once. Only her sheer determination to not be left behind kept her going. When they stopped in front of Derek, her legs were shaking and she had to bend over to gain control of her stomach.

"Grab a practice sword," he barked again. She scrambled to do so, not sure if she could even lift the thing. Her arms were shaking in her exhaustion. "Form two lines!"

She did as he ordered, as did the rest of the soldiers. She got paired with one of the veterans. She could have groaned.

"Right line! One my count, hit the left side, the right side, then the front. Left side, on my count, block the left side, block the right side, and block the front! Side, side, front!"

The soldier, his name was Harlo, she thought, had no mercy. He struck with all his strength, it seemed, sending the ripples of his hit up her already quaking arms. It took more strength then she thought she had to turn them aside. Over and over, Derek called the count and each time, it was harder for her to turn them aside. Blessedly, he called for a switch and it was her turn to attack.

She had never been good at outright attacks, and her weakened state didn't help. But she managed to connect each time, even if he turned them aside easily. Her face creased in concentration as she watched his movements, forgetting her fatigue in her study. She wanted to make him work for it too, she thought, and began pinpointing the spots where he seemed weaker. She had been hitting at the base of his sword, where it was easier to turn it aside. She's have to fix that. The next hit she struck was at the very tip, and it threw him off balance by the slightest bit so when she struck on the next count, he had to work harder to turn it aside. She continued this, making him work harder each time, for she was hitting harder as her confidence boosted.

"On my count!" Derek called and she stopped. She looked up at Harlo and saw laughter twinkling in his eyes. "Right line, strike high the left side, middle to the right side, low to the left side! High left! Middle right! Low left!"

This continued for several more minutes, then it was her turn. By this time, all thoughts of exhaustion were gone and she simply did as instructed as best she could without thinking about it. Barely mid morning and she was already ready to drop.

When they were done with swords, Derek called for another two laps. She managed to keep up with everyone, but how she couldn't say. When the laps were done, he called for them to lie on the ground on their backs. When they were there, he explained that they were to cross their arms over their chests and bring their elbows up to their knees using only their stomachs as leverage. Crunches, he called them. When he began counting for the crunches, it was obvious she wasn't very good at them. Next he called for them to do pushups. These she was slightly better at, because she had some muscles in her arms, but she wasn't as good as the other soldiers.

When that was complete, he called them to stand around him while he spoke in a much softer voice. "We'll break for lunch. Drink lots of fluid and have a good-portioned lunch. We'll met back here in two hours, with horses. Have your bows with you. We'll do some mounted combat training. Dismissed."

Tori's shoulders relaxed as the order was given. Her body was trembling by now and she was ready for a break. She trotted off to the mess hall and ate. Domiar sat with her, as did Bradley and the redheaded twins. Harlo stopped to say hello to her, which surprised her because she hadn't thought he had liked her. He had had a scowl on his face the whole time. All too soon, the two hours were up and she had her horse gathered and in the training ring. She grabbed a practice sword and got into line with the rest of the soldiers. Derek arrived on his horse also and called for them to pair up.

Harlo approached her with a small smirk on his lips. He nodded to her and she nodded back. It seems she had made a friend within her squad. That delighted her. But her delight soon faded. She, it soon became known, stunk at that type of combat.

She could do it in her mind, could fight on horseback, duel with Harlo within her imagination. But when it came time to do it in real life, she just plain stank. On foot, she couldn't attack out right, and on horseback she couldn't either. All her defensive moves that she used on foot held no meaning on the horses back. Fighting from horseback involved many more things then just her feet and her sword. She had to use the horse, had to maneuver it where she needed it to go. She had to watch the other person's horse and his sword. There were so many different things to concentrate on. It boggled her mind and frustrated her, and with each swing and block she made, she became more and more clumsy. It really was a pathetic display.

She could have wept with gratitude when Derek called a halt for the day. She didn't know how much more humiliation she could take.

"Torick? May I speak with you?" Derek called as they shuffled their horses from the ring. She nodded and slunk over to him, her head down in shame. "I see you need some extra practice on this area. Is that right?"

"Yes, sir," she whispered, trying to hide the tremble in her voice. She hated the fact that it was there.

"When would you like to begin extra training? I'm free most afternoons after training. Does tomorrow sound good to you?" she looked up at him sharply, wondering why he was being so lenient about this. Or so nice. He had been barking out orders all day, and now he was asking her?

"That sounds good, sir," she said softly, looking up at him through her lashes, a habit that made her seem girly to him.

"Good, tomorrow it is then. I still expect you to keep up with the rest of the training though, so don't let this—"

"Derek!" a feminine voice called from across the ring. She looked up to see a girl, one that she had seen before, crossing the ring to them. "The boy's family has finally come and identified him. They're holding the wake tonight. They request that you—"

"Don't shout like a heathen, Mira!" Derek scolded, neatly cutting across his sister's words. Tori had no misgivings that he didn't want her to hear what was being said. "Soldier, you're dismissed."

She bowed to him and led her horse from the building. But she knew what was being said. Robert's family had come. He was being put through the burial ceremony. Tonight was her last night to make peace with him. She knew it was risky, but her heart ached for him. She was going to the temple and she would give him an explanation so his soul could find peace with the Gods.

* * *

Mira watched as the young man, boy really walked his horse from the yard. When she had first seen him, she had been struck with the thought that he was a very pretty boy. His silky blond hair had glistened with torchlight in the arena and his pale cheeks had flushed. His eyes, which shimmered green had held a sad look in them, one that touched her heart, called to her.

"Who was that?" she asked as her eyes followed him out the door until it closed blocking off her view of him.

"Torick. New recruit. He seems well enough. Why?" Derek looked at his sister, saw the dopey look in her eye and sighed. She was hopeless, he thought as he turned to grab his mounts reigns and began leading his horse from the stable. His sister may dream of becoming a knight like their mother, Kel, but she was also a hopeless romantic and always falling in and out of love with all the different people of the court.

"Oh. He's very handsome," she said, looking at him slyly, battering her eyelashes at him. "Want to introduce me?"

"What did you come for Mira?" he asked, exasperated, but amused at the same time.

"Father would like me to request for him that you keep a vigil at the boy, Robert's, ceremony tonight so as to apprehend any suspicious people, manly the person you suspect committed the crime. It's being held tonight, at the palace. He wants you there as soon as possible. And are you sure that you can't introduce me?"

"Thanks Mira, and no," he smiled, patted his sister fondly on the shoulder and left the building. He would take a knife with him, to the temple, just in case. The woman, Tori, if she showed, could be dangerous. Most would say he wouldn't need it, for she was just a woman after all.

But he had a feeling, way down in his gut that she would come. And he would get a chance to catch her and put her to justice. He could hardly wait.

* * *

Torianna slipped into the back of the chapel, her brown, nondescript cloak tight around her, the hood lowered over her face. She had tried to come earlier but Domiar had held her back with some tasks. Now, she wasn't alone. The whole chapel was filled with people, nobles and such that had known Robert or his family.

She felt nervous at the thought of being discovered. It had only been a week since the accident, but she had denounced everything she had known. Torianna no longer existed. Just Torick. If Torianna was alive, then there was a way for people to find her, for people to hurt her. Bringing her so blatantly into a crowd made her hands shake.

Almost every seat in the chapel was filled. She had to take the only available seat, which was in the middle section of the left side. She couldn't see any of Robert's family so she sat slowly, her head bowed as she prayed for his soul. The cleric came into the room and began to speak the ancient verses over Robert's prone figure.

It was halfway through the second verse that she felt several pairs of eyes on her. All of them filled with hostility. Her back stiffened and her murmured prayers became that much louder as the animosity grew. Soon, she was shivering from the force, but she couldn't back down now. They would realize how weak she really was.

The cleric's voice came to a rest. It was time for the people to walk to the body and give it their respects and final words. She rose with the rest of the people, her eyes searching through the crowd for the owner of the eyes, hoping to spot him before he spotted her so she could slip away unnoticed first.

Her eyes found him, but her chance for escape was lost. He was striding towards her, fury in his eyes as they focused on her chest. On the ring that rested on her chest. Never before had she laid eyes on this man, but she knew that he knew her, and she knew that that was bad. She shivered and with a cry that was wrenched from her throat unwarranted, began to push her way through the people to the aisle. If she made it there, she could make a run for it.

The last person blocking her way stepped to the side and she stumbled onto the clear aisle. But as she turned to leave, a hand grabbed her cloak, pulling it back, causing the hood to fall and her brown hair to spill free.

"Torianna!" cried a feeble, overjoyed voice that she knew very, very well. It passed over her ears even as dread hardened in her stomach. "We thought you were dead!"

Torianna turned so she could see the tear stained face of Robert's oldest sister Marianna. Her blue eyes, so similar to Robert's welled with tears before she buried her face in Torianna's course brown dress. She wanted so badly to push the little girl away and run, but she had lost sight of the man and she didn't know where to run, where was safe. Her body tensed, every muscle on the edge of movement, poised to run at the slightest provocation, as she searched the crowd that had gathered around her and the sobbing child.

The crowd parted to the side and a man stepped through. For one agonizing second of pure terror she thought it was the man that had killed Robert, but it wasn't. It was Robert's father, Josh.

Her nostrils flared as she sucked in air, her eyes glued to the furious man's face. She had never liked him before, and he had always hated her. It was the perfect combination of dislike. Josh had always thought Robert had been having an affair with Torianna. He had blamed everything that went wrong in Robert's life on her. She wasn't surprised when he blamed Robert's death on her too.

"You bitch!" he seethed storming forward and slapping her across the face, his hand open. The force behind the strike knocked her to the side and to her knees. Marianna whimpered as she clutched all the harder at her dress. The second strike knocked other completely to the floor.

Where are your skills now? She pleaded with herself as feet began pummeling into her back; she curved around the small child, shielding her from the blows. She could hear curses and screams and people yelling, someone calling to stop the violence. But none of it really penetrated the fog around her mind. Her senses were singing, and a strange sensation came over her.

Her senses reached farther and farther, reaching beyond anything she had thought possible, beyond her beyond the people ringing around her, past Robert's figure and through a door in the back, where the man she had seen before had gone. He was in a small chamber, bowing before a man whose face was shrouded in shadows. Beside him stood the black demon that had killed Robert. She shuddered but didn't pull back.

The man from the crowd was speaking now, in an accent she couldn't quite place. She had heard it before, but from where was escaping her memory. "I saw her, master. She was in there. But she ran into a crowd and I couldn't move in."

The man's voice trembled with what she recognized as terror. It seems she wasn't the only one who feared these men.

"But you saw her face? You know what she looks like?" the master, as the man had called him, had a strong voice, also with an accent, but his was stronger, more noticeable.

"Aye, master. I saw her face. And I saw the ring. It is as you said. It glows when it touches her skin. What manner of magic is this? How much do we have to fear from her?"

"Much my bower… very much. She is the…and with the sword… she must never find… or we will be doomed," she was being pulled back into her body, their words fading. She caught only small fragments of the last sentence before she was returned fully to her body, one hand fisted tightly around the ring at her neck, the other around the child who had ceased her tears.

Her body was stiff and taught with pain. She moaned as she tried to move, but her back was so mottled with scars she couldn't manage it. Silence, she thought as her eyes fluttered open, seeing many blurred faces, but hearing no sound.

"Tori?" the little girl whispered, looking up at the face of the woman who had protected her. "Are you all right?"

Torianna nodded and tried to stand, to move, but could only manage to whimper. Her ribs hurt with each breath she drew in, sharp pains through her middle. Her face burned from the open slaps, and her legs were cramping in there drawn up position.

"Someone, help her," she heard a plea from the crowd but wasn't sure who said it. Her vision was wavering, fading into black. The last thing she saw before she drifted completely away was Derek's face over her own, frowning as usual. She smiled faintly as her head relaxed against he ground, unconscious.

* * *

When she came too, she was alone in the healing ward of the palace. It seems the people who had captured her had deemed her to hurt to make an escape attempt. She sighed at her good fortune. She didn't know what they would do to her, if they would be kind, or listen to Robert's father, and she didn't want to find out either.

She stood slowly, fighting back the rush of dizziness that was followed closely by pressure and then a deep pain in the forehead. Her back ached, as did her ribs. But she was alive, and capable of moving.

The door opened easily when she turned the knob and with careful steps, she walked from the room, down the hall and out into the night. She hadn't expected it to be so easy, but now that she was this far, she wouldn't stick around.

Her feet carried her from the palace and out into the city. She would visit another healer and have her wounds completely fixed. She didn't want any sign of them left over for Derek to notice. Torick hadn't been at the chapel, so Torick couldn't have any bruises.

Suddenly, as she walked quietly down the streets, she was struck with a memory. A memory that wasn't her own. She stood still as her vision went green before clearing into a scene from someone else's life.

_The woman stood from the bed, her tattered dress barely hanging from her shoulders. She didn't bother wiping the tears from her wet cheeks. To wipe them away would be to acknowledge the weakness within her. She wasn't weak, she was the strongest woman in the world. One man who thought he owned her would never change that. _Couldn't_ change that. Never again would she allow herself to be so helpless._

_She grabbed the ring, the emerald blazing at her touch, from the table beside the bed that she had hated so much. She slipped it onto her finger as she walked through the door and didn't look back. _This_, she thought,_ will be the sign of my freedom, and my strength.

A/N Okay, so that was it. What'd ya think? Huh? HUH? lol. I added in some more mystery, gave some subtle hints. There'll be more coming up. Oh, and don't ask me why no one was there guarding her. I won't tell. lol. Revie me!

Nubia


	6. Chapter Five

A/N Some shoutouts too...

Warrior of Tortall: I'm glad you like it so much. /.

Danna: Good guess, but you forgot one thing. Novallee has gray eyes. The person in the vision didn't.

cylobaby: Derek knows who Torianna is and how she id related to Robert, but he doesn't know that Torianna is Torick.

Wingrider: Not exactly. But yes, there is magic involved.

Beth: Yes, they'll find out enventually. And she baths and changes either very early in the morning when everyone is asleep, or very late at night when everyone is asleep.

Mage Light: Zahib is a rouge, but they don't belong to the rouge world.

...: glad you like my story

Cherryfairie: thanks for reading and for the ideas. lol

Ephona: Thanks for reading!

incarnated soul: Thanks for reading, I'm glad you enjoy. And I hope you like my other stories as well.

Gothamin: Thanks for the compliment!

Okay, there you are, and her you go. Enjoy this next chappy.

Chapter Five:

Tori went to practice the next day stiff and sore and with a pale face. Many people noticed, more then she had expected, more then she wanted. She handled it easily though, laughing and joking how Derek had worked them hard the day before. Harlow, the sweet man he was, offered to help her get into better shape, and she knew that he didn't believe her one bit. He could see the shadows in her troubled eyes.

In the practice ring, Derek drilled them hard, with a scowl on his face the whole time. She was nervous and jittery around him, hardly able to concentrate on what she was doing for a moment. They were working on staffs, something that came to her rather easily. But her eyes kept going back to Derek's glaring face. He was angry, deeply angry, and she knew that she was the cause. He hadn't meant for her to escape, hadn't meant it at all. And he was angry with himself that she had gotten away.

It dawned on her as her movements became sluggish that he thought she had murdered Robert. Just like Robert's father, just like everyone. Everyone thought she was a cold-blooded murderer capable of killing her closest friend.

She hissed in pain when Harlow's staff rapped hard against her knuckles. She glared at him, but her mind didn't wander again that day. After lunch, they practiced with staffs on horses. Of course, she was as bad at that as with staff's, but Harlow set about to coaching her. By the end of the practice session, she was certain she was picking up on it. It wasn't as complicated if she made the horse and rider one, the rider just an extra appendage.

Derek motioned her over, and she remembered how she had agreed to extra practice with him. Her stomach gave a quiver at the thought. She couldn't very well concentrate if she thought that at any second he would suddenly turn to her and accuse her of killing Robert, that he would see through her disguise and know who she really was. That wasn't good working conditions, not at all. But she had to do it, or she would be kicked out.

What would she do if that happened? She had nowhere else to go, no one else whom she could trust. She couldn't even trust the people here! She was alone in the world, and that stark fact caused her face to drain and her hands to tremble on the staff that she held. She was truly alone in the world, and what happened in her life depended on her. No helping hand would give her a boost in this world. No one to tell her problems to, no one to ask for advice. No one.

"Are you ready?" Derek's rough voice startled her from her thoughts. Her big emerald eyes latched onto her face and for a spilt second Derek saw straight into her soul, saw the swirling emotions, the terror and the utter loneliness. And he shuddered at the feelings that arose within himself.

But then she was turning away, nodding as she strengthened her hold on the staff. She banished the feelings from her mind and from her heart. She had to concentrate on what she was doing now, had to learn and become better.

She positioned her horse in the starting place and looked at Derek to see him glaring at her. Derek had also banished the thoughts, but not so easily as Tori had shed hers. Derek was having trouble understanding them and comprehending them. He had felt pity… and a need to make the feelings he had seen in the boys (A/N he still sees Torianna as a boy, of course) eyes go away. And it made him scowl, for Torick was just a soldier, and he was the commander. It didn't do well to become personally involved in anyone of his soldier's life. Be there friend, be their leader, but never be there confidant or a person they could turn their problems to, his father had always said. He had followed those words since he had become commander seven years before at age sixteen and he wouldn't start now.

"Right then, lets begin," his voice was hard and harsh, much more so then when they were training with everyone, much more then when he had spoken to her alone the day before. The tone made her blink, wondering if she had done something wrong, but he was moving, swinging at her and she had to block, had to maneuver the horse. Everything she had figured out with Harlow fled as she dealt out blows that missed and felt the bruising sting of the staff hit her in various places when Derek found an opening. He found an opening often.

"Pay attention, boy," Derek growled as he hit her in the shoulder for the… who knew how many times it had been? She certainly didn't, nor did she care. All that mattered was it hurt like bloody hell, as it had every time in the past hour they had been working and she hadn't learned a thing.

"I am," she hissed back, fury rising, making her eyes glow. The ring that rested on her chest began to heat, slowly, in time with the heating of her temper. She swung again, pushing her horse forward at the same time. Derek's horse snorted at the sudden invasion of his face and pulled back. Derek dropped his guard to settle his horse and Tori struck, hitting him, hard, on the shoulder. He grunted before staring at her. She nodded her head in satisfaction as if to say, _there, take that_.

"Good," the word was snarled more then spoken and she knew she had put her foot in it that time. He was furious, she could read it in his eyes and he wouldn't go light on her, not that he had in the first place. But he would go even harder now. But she was angry too, and she knew that would make her clumsy and uncoordinated. She could have groaned. "Again."

His staff began a furious dance, beating down on her own, catching her fingers more often then not as she forced her horse back and back, away from him. The end of his staff snaked under her guard and clipped her shoulder. It hit the bone with a dull thud and enough force to launch her out of the saddle. Her horse startled and skittered away from where she had landed on her side, the staff tucked under her body, parallel with her ribs. Her head was nestled against her arm, but that didn't stop the pounding headache that had begun. Derek was off his horse, throwing his staff to the side as he stalked over to her cursing the whole time.

He grabbed her by her injured shoulder and jerked her up to her feet where she swayed as the blood rushed to her head. When the dizziness stopped she was able to key into what he was saying.

"…We've been at this an hour and still you haven't learned a thing. You're a half-wit! Less then a half-wit for I'm sure even some one with only half a brain could have figured this out by now. I ask for soldiers and what do the gods give me? A useless little boy that doesn't even now how to fight on a horse. I have half a mind to just through you out now!"

The fear and anger rose at the same to his words and she clung to the anger, using it to banish the fear. She lashed out, her tongue free of all restraints. As she yelled at him, the ring against her chest began to glow, the faint emerald light barely visible.

"Maybe I'd learn something if you bothered to teach me something, you bully! All you've done for an hour is scowl and swing. What was I supposed to learn? Not a single word of advice, not one! At least Harlow tried! He should be commander, not some… bully with a stick!" she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest in order to keep them from lashing out and striking him across the face. She saw his mouth open in a rebuttal and cut him off with more words. "And furthermore, if your angry at something that has nothing to do with your soldiers don't take it out on them! We're not your lackeys or your punching bags! We're your team, and if you ever want to survive in a battle you'll learn to…" a sound reached her ears, one she hadn't expected. Could it be… was it…? Yes it was! She recognized it now. She hadn't at first for it was rusty and low, but she knew what it was now. She could see it in his face. He was laughing at her. "Just what is so funny!"

"Did you…call me… a… a bully with a stick?" Derek gasped between deep bellows of laughter. She stared at him, a concerted look on her face, trying to remember exactly what she _had_ said.

"It's possible, yes," she admonished, still not quite sure. Her answer seemed to make his laughter worse. He was doubling over now, holding his stomach as he continued his helpless laughter.

"I'm glad you find this so amusing," that didn't help him stop and neither did her adamant claim that she was entirely serious. It seemed nothing she could say would make him stop, so she settled for crossing her arms over her chest and waiting.

Finally, he stopped and even managed to stand up straight. The look on her face nearly sent him back over the edge, but he managed to control himself. "Are you quite finished?" she demanded in a tart voice. He nodded solemnly.

"I'm sorry, Torick. You were absolutely right. I was mad, and I did take it out on you. I shouldn't have," that threw her off completely, but she remained quiet, a natural look on her face. "I'm sorry you didn't bring it to my attention earlier. We shall begin again, properly this time. Are you ready?"

She nodded a bit dazed. Had he just apologized to her? And said that he was wrong? She had never expected that of him. As far as she had seen, he had been a good commander and never in fault. This blew her away. He handed her the staff she had previously dropped and even held her horse still while she mounted. By the time he was on his horse, he was calmly explaining the easiest way to maneuver the horse and battle at the same time.

He extended her thoughts of the rider being an extra appendage to thinking that the horse's feet were her feet and she had to think with four feet instead of two. Within another hour, they had called it quits and she had learned very much. It had even become slightly easier to move the horse and attack at the same time.

Derek smiled at her, told her she had done a good job and led his horse from the arena and the building, leaving her gawking in his wake.

* * *

Derek entered the barracks late that night after spending much time conferring with his father on things. He saw Torick's back outlined by the faint light and couldn't help but smile. That kid had made him laugh harder then he had ever laughed in his entire life, and for the first time in longer then he could remember.

A bully with a stick, he chuckled just at the thought as he turned from Torick and bent to remove his shoes and climb onto the bed. A flicker of movement from the corner of his eye had him turning. He saw the man standing beside Torick's bed, pale as a ghost and let out a startled shout.

Torick jerked to life, took one look at the man standing over his bed and gave a terrified shout. Derek watched as both Torick's legs flew up and out, striking the man in the chest and knocking him backwards. He was even more amazed at what he saw the small boy do next

Tori launched herself from the bed and onto the man, grappling to reach his hands and gain control on him, never once thinking or noticing how much smaller she was then the man.

The man lurched to the side, but Tori clung and they ended up rolling to the side, through the baths door and into the heated and lit room. She got a clear look at his face as the struggled more. His eyes were brown, but the outer ring of them was turning a deep emerald, the green color slowly seeping into the middle. The whites of his eyes had taken on a faint green tint. One of the man's feet kicked the door closed before they rolled up against it, their combined weight holding the door closed.

"Who are you?" she demanded in a low voice, forgetting about his hands and going for his throat, trying to gain purchase, to squeeze the truth out of him. "What do you want?"

"The ring," he whispered and reached for her chest, for the ring. She smacked his hand away, as she looked into his eyes. At the contact, the green completely took over his eyes, turning them a solid emerald, and he took that moment to roll her off. He gained his feet and drew a knife, lunging for her neck just as the door to the baths burst open. The soldiers from her squad burst through, assessed the situation with rapid speed and took action. The man was dead before Tori had a chance to blink.

She stared at the body as the chance of getting some information slipped through her fingers. She slowly rose to her feet, listening to the babble of voices about her and trying to find anything on him that would give her any clue as to who he was. She found nothing, but knew he wasn't one of the ones that had been there when Robert had died. She had never seen him before in her life. But he had known her, somehow. And he had mentioned the ring.

"Good job, Torick, getting him down like that," the hand slapped her shoulder in respect and she managed a weak smile, to whom, she didn't know. Soon, the excitement died down and the soldiers went back to sleep, Derek to the palace to make a report of what had happened.

It wasn't till hours later, trying to sleep in the darkness of the barracks that she realized, he hadn't recognized her as Torianna. He had known who she was even in her disguise of Torick. The thought made her shiver.

* * *

Zahib sighed as he heard the report. The man who had gone for the girl was dead. But he had suspected that would happen. What worried him and the Master was that she had used the ring's power to call the man. He had felt the tug himself, but he hadn't succumbed to it. The other man had. And he was dead because of it.

He sighed as he relaxed back in his thrown at the tavern. The Master never came here and he was the Master. The bowers had as much fear of him now, as they had of the true Master. He chuckled with glee at the thought.

But his laughter soon died. The Master was truly afraid of the girl. He had seen it, seen the terror when the pull had begun. It had lasted several minutes, and as each second ticked by, the Master had gotten paler. It wasn't good, Zahib thought darkly, for the Master to show weakness. If he was Master, he never would.

If he was Master… the thought had a nice ring to it. His eyes darted around taking measure. No one was looking at him, or for that matter paying any attention. "I'm the Master," he whispered, barely able to hear it himself. But the giddy pleasure that swept down his spine gave evidence that he had.

He laughed. Soon, he would make those words into truth. Very soon.

A/N there it was. Hope you liked it. Review me!

Nubia


	7. Chapter Six

AN: here's the next chapter. Sorry it took a little bit guys. But we're going through some major testing at school soon and most of my time has been concentrated on preparing for that. Anyways, here's the latest chapter. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to:

Libby: It hasn't been exactly a month. Just close to one. lol

Fillipa: I'm glad you like it. :)

Danna: Nope, its not Evie. You probably won't guess it because its a totally new character. So new, I don't even have a name for her yet. Got any suggestions? lol. And yeah, she hides her hair under a wig.

Mage Light: I think that is the best compliment I could ever get. lol.

Flower Kid: Here's a quick family tree. And I can't tell who the lady is cause that would ruin the mystery. lol. And if you haven't already read the stories, I have two more stories posted that are complete on Novellee and Burdock and one on Ciem and Evie.

Unknown lady (there are several hundred years in between with some unknown connection to the two families)

Dom and kel married and had two kids, Derek and Mira.

Novellee and Burdock married and had Ciem first (who married Evie and is now expecting a child) and Torianna (who was kidnapped at birth and doesn't know she related to them)

Cylobaby: I'm glad you liked that.I wasn't sure if I did a good job, but I guess I did. And you can rest assured, there will be plenty more of those scense. lol.

Gothamin: Bastard with a stick works to. lol. And I'm sure you'll be quite surprised with the ring. lol.

Beth: Yes, she called him when she was mad a Derek, but thats not exactly what happened. Lets just saythe callinghas something to do with her emotions.

Warrior of Tortall: I'm glad that you liked and that I've reached the standard of amazing in you eyes. :)

Incarnated-soul: You should definately keep an eye out for Zahib. He is important. What happened with the thief guy is hard to explain because not all the facts have been reveiled, but lets just say that a magic power was used. Yes, their is a romance between Derek and Tori in the future and yes they will find out that she isn't really a boy later on.

Wingedrider:)

Ephone: yes... cool.

Chapter Six:

Tori gasped as she sat up right, fighting with the blankets that struggled to hold her down. Her breath was heaving, she was sucking for air, her body trembling as she pushed at the hair that had fallen into her eyes.

Her eyes blinked rapidly as she looked about her, trying to make sense of where she was for several moments. She was sleeping on the ground, fully clothed, her sword inches from her hand. The bedroll that had once been made neatly was now very much disarrayed, but she knew that was because of the dreams.

Her body shuddered as she thought again of the dream. It hadn't been a dream so much as memories, much like that experiences she had had before. Only these were worse. These were filled with blood and pain, screams and fear. Of stalking and ruthless killing and all from a mask of emerald eyes. Eyes that were mirror to her own.

She supposed that's what scared her the most about the dreams. Not that they were familiar to her yet so distant from her memory. Not that they were violent and filled with murder, something she wished no part in. It was none of that. What scared her the most was that the woman who watched these happen was so like herself it was uncanny. They thought the same, felt the same, looked the same. Everything in them was identical. So if the woman got such great pleasure out of killing, wouldn't she?

She shuddered again, her eyes focusing out of the haze to see the camp around her. She was confused again before she remembered. Two days before they had received a summons by Lady Knight Kel at New Haven that Scanran tribes had been attacking heavily for almost a week and they needed back up. Derek and his squad had been sent ahead because they were a smaller group and could move faster. And for longer periods of time.

They had been traveling almost none stop for two days, going as fast as they could without endangering anyone. No one blamed him for it, it was his mother after all. But someone had finally said something the night before when Torick had fallen asleep in the saddle and almost fallen off. Derek had looked at her with such a look on his face that she had bitten back her protests and insisted she was fine. He had made them stop anyways.

She had stayed awake long enough to do what was required of her, then had fallen into her bedroll and hadn't stirred till just a few moments ago. Judging by the sky that had been almost seven hours ago. More sleep then she had gotten in some time. The dreams had been plaguing her nearly every night since that fateful day in the chapel two months ago. Knowing from experience that she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep, she forced her protesting muscles into action.

She could have taken a bath in the river a little ways off, but she was to tired to bother with it. It would be less of a hassle if she waited until she got to New Haven. Instead, she quickly fixed her bedroll into a semblance of order and scurried to the fire. It was cold here, up near the border.

It would be light soon, so she set about fixing biscuits with meat in the middle. Soon after they were done, Derek stirred and came to sit beside her at the fire. Without looking away from their enchanting depths, she handed him one. He took it with a murmured thanks.

She stretched her arms up over her head and the ring on her chest moved, bringing the emerald into direct contact with her skin. It startled her, the sudden jolt of the cold stone. She gasped, her arms thudding to her sides and slumped forward as her eyes closed over a vision.

_The woman with emerald eyes smiled as the man bowed before her, his nose touching her leather-clad foot. He was trembling like a leaf caught in the wind and she could smell his fear. She breathed deep through her nose and sighed as the aroma filled her. She leaned back in her chair, a content smile on her face._

_She had spared this one just days before, hoping he would bring something to her army, but he hadn't. In fact, he had nearly killed one entire squad with one stupid mistake. If he groveled will enough, she might just allow him to live._

"_Well?" she demanded as she sat forward suddenly, kicking him in the chest and sending him sprawling across the floor. "What do you have to say about yourself?"_

_His eyes, she noticed as he returned to his kneeling position were so very pretty. A fluttering started in her chest, one that she squashed down. He smiled and she nearly sighed at the angelic look on his face. "That you're beautiful."_

_She cleared her throat, embarrassed by the blush that crept up her cheeks. She had killed hundreds, defeated more, and conquered entire armies and she blushed at this simple complement. "Regardless… you're stupid mistake nearly cost us the entire front line squad. We could have lost to the Tortalian devils. What were you thinking?"_

"_About your sweet face, my love. Only your sweet face," he grinned ruthlessly as her blush deepened. _

"Torick," a frantic voice called to her. She moaned deep in her throat, almost sad to leave this place. The man, he seemed too familiar to her, comforting. She wanted to run to him and fall into his arms. He would sooth away her fears, she knew it. But someone was shaking her shoulders, calling her out of this far away place.

Her eyes fluttered open and she stared up at Derek, saw his worried expression and released that she must have dozed off sitting there. She sat up fast, too fast, misjudged and ended up hitting her forehead against Derek's mouth.

"Ouch," she said as she fell back. Derek cursed and sat back, holding his mouth. She saw blood dribbling down his chin, felt it on her forehead and wanted the world to swallow her whole. She had fallen asleep in front of him and hurt him.

"Here, let me help with that," she stammered, grabbing from the pack a few feet away. Luckily it was hers and she knew where bandages where. She grabbed one and with a no-nonsense attitude that she used with Robert's sisters, pulled his hand away, and swabbed at it, cleaning away the blood, then pressed on it to staunch the flow. She had split his lip.

"I'm sorry about this," she said, looking up at him. His eyes were sparkling and she realized that he was laughing. At her, at the situation. It didn't matter. "Hold that, please. I think you hit my head with your teeth."

She grabbed another cloth and with the same efficient moves, set to work on hers. She couldn't see it, but when she felt with her fingers, there was a sting, so she knew there was a cut. She dabbed it clean and pressed the bandage to it, stopping the blood flow.

"What was that Torick? You just fell asleep and I couldn't wake you for several minutes," Derek's voice would have been muffled accept he had removed the bandage. To cover up what had really happened she scolded him and made him put the bandage back on.

By the time the blood had stopped, the others had woken and were gathering around the fire. She took advantage of the commotion to sneak away to where to horses were tied and groomed her horse. She had decided to call her Wildfire, since she was such a feisty beast.

They mounted up within the hour and were on their way. About midday they came in sight of New Haven.

When they entered the gates to New Haven, something immediately caught her attention. There was a family standing next to the Lady Knight, and judging by the way they were dressed, they were nobles.

The family stood tall and proud, but she could see that they weren't really a family. With the father at the front, his a stony face his set in a disapproving frown. The mother was small and frail, her skin pale and fragile. She looked small enough that a strong wind would knock her over. Her hand was on the small boy's shoulder, as if to include him in the family. Tori could see by the way her hand clenched on his shoulder that it was to restrain him.

Her emerald eyes flew to his face, struck by his excited blue eyes. And excited they were. He was nearly salivating at the sight of them. He wants to be a warrior, she thought as she watched the way he shifted from foot to foot, his eyes feeding on the sight of Derek and his squad. On her and her horse. Even though they were worn and tired, dirty from the dust on the trail, he still saw them in a holy light.

And he could make a good warrior, she saw. Already his small body was strong with wide shoulders that could bare much weight. His small arms looked strong. But it was the fire lighted in his eyes that would make him a good warrior. He was born for the fight, and the need to do so burned in his eyes.

Derek held up his hand to signal a halt and she stopped Wildfire with a touch of her knees. Wildfire was very receptive to things and she had taught her pressure signals very easily.

She watched as Derek separated from the group slightly, dismounted and bowed before his mother. She laughed, a very light sound that surprised Tori, and bid him to rise before embracing him in a hug. Tori saw the corners of the father's mouth tighten. So it was the Lady Knight he disapproved of.

Mother and son began speaking and she watched the Lady Knight's face for a sign on what was being said, but her face was as calm as a lake's surface on a windless summer's day. She could read nothing in it. She would have looked to Derek's for his was very easy for her to read, but his back was turned to her.

She settled for straining her ears to try and catch a whiff of their conversation, but soon found herself drifting into thoughts. They wandered for a few minutes before zeroing in on the events that morning.

The more that she thought about it, the less it seemed that she had fallen asleep. She couldn't even remember closing her eyes. It was almost as if… her eyes popped wide and a startled sound had escaped her throat. She hadn't been asleep; she had been sucked into it. When the emerald had touched her skin.

Her hands fluttered up and around her chest, wanting to grab for it but not sure if she should touch it. Derek, as if hearing the noise, turned to look at her. Her face, she knew, was pale, her eyes wide and vulnerable. What had the ring to do with her visions? The memories?

Wildfire, already fidgety at her sudden anxiety, had the great misfortune of being stung by a bee. She reared, nearly unseating Tori, who managed to grab the pommel of the saddle. Her horse, very much wanting to be free of the bee's presence, tore across the yard at full speed towards Derek and his mother as soon as all four of her feet were on the ground.

Tori, already very much unbalanced, did her best to remain seated, but as Wildfire swung wide to avoid hitting the family, she lost her hold and went flying. She tried to curl, but only managed to arch her back into an outward curve, her arms going up to protect her head. Luckily something broke her fall.

Unluckily what broke her fall was Derek. Her back slammed into Derek's chest, knocking him back into his mom, who caught him. He in turn caught her, catching her under the arms, his hands, incidentally, landing on her chest.

The embarrassing touch only lasted a few startling seconds. But it was enough to have her blushing and praying that he hadn't felt anything that made him suspect. She scrambled away from him, stumbled and caught herself hurriedly. She spun around, stammering her apologies and bowing furiously.

"It's alright, boy," Derek said with a hint to his voice. She looked up through her lashes to see the laughter twinkling in his green-brown eyes and allowed herself to breath a sigh of relief. "No harm done."

She flushed even darker when she felt the Lady Knight Kel's eyes on her. Derek turned to his mother and gestured. "This is the soldier I mentioned."

"This?" she demanded, clearly surprised. "This is the soldier?" she turned to Tori with new interest and looked her over very carefully. She knew what Kel saw. A short, pale, little blond boy with striking emerald eyes. The fact that a slender sword was belted around her hips was so long it nearly dragged onto the ground only made her look more ridiculous. She was certain the Lady Knight found her wanting, but she didn't bother to look to see the expression in her eyes. Instead she frowned at Derek. Why had he been talking about her to his mother, and what about?

"Come, we must go talk about plans and things. Torick, you will attend me," Derek said, motioning her to follow. She gawked, stammering, trying to weasel out of it. She just knew Derek would find a way to ask her about the vision.

"I have to… the horse needs to be… I can't," she made a vague pointing motion with her hands, and turned to leave but Derek grabbed her arm and began pulling her after his fast retreating mom.

"Harlow will take care of it," she turned back to nod to Harlow but instead saw the noble family moving to follow them. Puzzled she turned back to Derek.

In a low voice so only Derek could hear she whispered. "Who are those people?"

Derek turned, looked, and shrugged. His grip on her arm loosened some, but he didn't let go entirely. "Not sure. Mother said something about them being attacked by a Scanran bandit group and seeking refuge here. Other then that, next to nothing."

She smiled faintly as she looked back again also. "Bet that made the little boy happy."

"What?" Derek almost yelled, clearly very surprised by that and taking the wrong meaning. Laughter threatened to escape, but she knew it would sound horribly girly so forced it back.

"Not like that. The boy's a fight, Derek. A warrior. Didn't you see it? It probably made his day seeing a fight," she smiled softly up at him. His face had a strange look on it. Almost… soft. She quickly looked down, feeling her cheeks start to burn. Derek cleared his throat and quickly dropped her arm.

"We'll have to see about getting him into the Own then. Or made into a knight," he smiled at his mother as they entered the headquarters of New Haven. Derek gestured and she took a seat next to him in front of the desk that Lady Knight Kel sat behind.

"It seems we have much to plan if we want to get the Scanra situation under control. Derek what do you have in mind?" she turned to him. He began speaking about something or other, but she wasn't listening. The boy had come to stand beside her, listening intently. She watched his eyes light with the excitement of the talk and she couldn't help the small smile that graced her lips.

"What do you think Torick?" Derek asked turning to her. She nearly blushed when she realized that she didn't have any idea what they were talking about. He raised his eyebrows expectantly and she nodded.

"Good," the Lady Knight Kel nodded her head once, quickly. "Now all we need is to find a sitter for young Jon."

"Torick will do it," Derek offered and before she could protest Lady Knight Kel nodded her assent. The father made a strangled sound in his throat and she turned to him to see his face red from holding back vicious words. She could tell.

"Good. It's settled then. Torick, Jon will bunk with you so you get to sleep in the main house. From now one, Jon will go everywhere with you. You've just been given a permanent companion."

Tori blanched at the thought. How would she explain to her new companion if he ever found out that she wasn't a boy?

AN there you go. Hope you enjoyed. Sorry for the wait. And if you want a disclaimer, I don't own anything. Review me!

Nubia


	8. Chapter Seven

So, here is the latest chapter. Hope you all enjoy. Thanks to...

Lain the Fluff Master: Hey, I know how that is. And I'm just glad that you're back here, reading again. And that you enjoy it.

Incarnated-soul: Yes, Derek is Kel and Dom's son. And Mira, mentioned in chapter four I think, is his sister. Jon definately spells trouble. And Tori's visions are very important.

Goldenkeys: I'm glad you like my story. Have you read my others? Some of the characters from those stories will be in this one in the future, so it might be helpful to read them also.

Flower Kid: That is a good question. But you needn't fear. Everything will work out and none of them will be gay or thought of as gay. Have you read my other stories?

Propaganda.inc: I'm glad you like my story. I've written two others, also original. Have you read them? Some of those characters will make an apperance in this story also.

Sammey/Beth: lol... yes you majesty. lol. Thanks for reading.

Cherryfaerie: Although I love that you read my stories and that you enjoy them, I wince at the thought of putting off school work... wait... no I don't. lol. Thanks for reading. You've been with me since the beginning and it was very much appreciated.

Mage Light: Yes, she does. lol. Thanks for reading.

Cylobaby: I'm glad you like my stories. Avenger has always been my favorite. That could be because it was my first. Or it could be because, like you said, assassins rock!

Warrior of Tortal: Thanks for reading. If you are confused about anything, feel free to ask me and I'll try to clarify as best as I can.

Wingedrider: Yes it will and yes she does. lol. Thanks for reading.

Chapter Seven:

_Her emerald eyes fluttered as a sigh escaped her throat. She smiled and pressed the roses to her nose. White roses, the color of innocence. It humbled her to think that he thought so much of her. She had probably killed thousands more then he had, but it still brought a smile to her face._

_He was doing that to her lately. Always making her smile. No matter what the day was like, he was always in her mind, always saying nice things to her. Always making her smile. Her cheeks hurt from the strain of such an unpracticed thing, but it didn't seem to stop her._

_She heard the door behind her sigh open and she turned, ready to snap, to yell, to demand her strict orders of privacy to be obeyed, but when she saw who it was, she found all thoughts fading away._

"_Hello, beautiful," he whispered, grabbing her hand as he fell to one knee, kissing it lightly. She murmured a protest, but didn't pull her hand away._

"_What do you want?" she snapped, but the lash had left her voice. He looked up at her with his wolfish grin, so sinister, yet so disarming._

"_Only to look upon your smiling face, beautiful," he smiled wider, turning it wolfish. Just as she was about to reply, the door opened, letting in blinding light. A woman stepped through and the woman with emerald eyes gasped, recognizing her and the hateful feelings that rose within her._

The knock sounding on Tori's door woke her from the dream, even as her hands fisted and the hate and anger surged through her like a tidal wave. She swallowed hastily and fought it back, then rolled from the bed nimbly.

She was still slightly disoriented from all that had happened the day before. She had been given her daily assignments, something that everyone had, including the Lady Knight Kel. Her duty was the latrines, but she didn't really mind. It was better then getting stuck trying to teach staff work to the peasants. She barely knew how she knew it, let alone how to teach others.

Along with latrine duty, she had to baby-sit little Jon for most of the day, and she had patrol duty with the rest of the squad. Today was the first day. She assumed the knocking on her door was Jon telling her it was time to wake. It was her experience that the children always woke the parent early.

She opened the door that lead into her private room and motioned Jon inside. Another thing that had been assigned to her yesterday was her own private room in the private bunkhouse, where the Lady Knight and her family slept. She had been surprised, especially when she learned that none of the other squad members had been given a room. She supposed that it was because she had to watch out for Jon.

"Good morning Jon," she whispered as she turned to a chair and grabbed her sword, which she fastened around her hips. "Shall we eat breakfast?"

"I already have," his face took on a sullen look and she nearly groaned. She had taken care of many children in her life, been introduced and disliked by some and greeted with all kinds of manners. She knew exactly where this look would take them, and she knew just how to act. He would try to make things difficult for her, and she would only make him obey and trust her by showing him that his efforts wouldn't affect her.

"Well, you can keep me company while I eat. And if you so choose to eat some more, by all means, go ahead," she knew that he had probably lied and by offering him an excuse she had neatly let him out of his own trap.

He eyed her suspiciously but followed her as she left the room. She was certain now, that she wasn't the first person to have to baby-sit him. He had a way about him that bespoke that fact that he knew what he was doing. He would try his best to get out from under her wing, but she wouldn't let him. Children had been her life and she had never given up on one before.

As they walked, she saw him eyeing her sword with more then a little envy and contempt. After all, he probably saw the same as everyone else, a boy barely becoming a man, short and pale, incompetent with a sword that nearly dragged on the ground. Why shouldn't he feel that way? It was going to be a bumpy road if she wanted his respect.

When she entered the mess hall, Derek hailed her and she instructed Jon to go sit by him. She expected him to disobey her, as most with his attitude would, but he did as she asked. Hurriedly she got herself a tray of food then headed to the table. Jon followed her movements with huge blue eyes, almost with an accosting expression in them. Yes, she thought, this would definitely be difficult.

She sat beside him when she reached the table with her tray in hand, across from Derek, and greeted him. "Would you like something, Jon?" she asked him kindly, still in a soft voice. He shook his head no, the sullen look still on his face.

She shrugged, lightly but enough that he noticed it, and began eating, letting the talk of the table wash over her. Unbidden her thoughts returned to her dream, or vision, as she was more inclined to call them, of the night before. She wondered who the woman was or how she was related to the woman connected to her dreams. The light that had entered behind the woman had clouded out most of her features, shrouding her in shadowy contrast, but she realized the woman was beautiful. Her body had held that kind of grace only a beautiful woman held as she had stepped into the door.

But she wondered why she was so hated. What had she done? What had happened between them could conjure such strong feelings? Even now, the memory of those feelings made her shiver.

Derek cleared his throat and she looked up at him from where her eyes had locked onto the tabletop. He was raising his eyebrow expectantly, as if he had asked her a question and she hadn't heard.

"Well? Are you up to it?" He asked again. She froze for a second, not sure what she was agreeing to but knew there was only one answer. Even if Derek had asked her a question, and not disguised a demand as one, she would still have only one answer. A no would make her a coward, and a yes would plunge her into the unknown. What choice did she have? So she nodded her head yes, one sharp jerk.

"Can I come on patrols too?" Jon asked, the first actual words he had spoken to her that weren't undermined with hidden meanings. She looked to him, saw the excitement shinning in his young, angelic face and sighed. He may not trust her and she may not be willing to bend to his every whim and trick, but she wasn't beyond wanting him to think she wasn't a boring boy with a sword to long for her.

"As long as your father says it's alright," she coincided, reluctantly. Jon exclaimed happily before jumping up and running away. She frowned after him, not entirely sure why.

"That was kind of you," Derek commented quietly. She turned to see him watching her with wary eyes. She gulped at the expression in them.

"When do we leave for patrol?" her voice sounded nervous to her, even though she tried to control it.

"Weren't you listening?" he demanded, all expression replaced by a stone block, his commanders face. She shook her head slightly, her cheeks heating. But what could she do? "Two hours. Just enough time for you to do latrine duty."

* * *

As Tori was saddling Wildfire Jon came into the stables to also saddle his pony. She nearly smiled at him, realizing how he had avoided her and latrine duties very easily, but knew the smile would be to forward of her. They weren't friends and he didn't trust her.

"I assume your father gave you permission, otherwise you wouldn't be saddling that pony of yours. You have a sword?" she asked of Jon. He nodded and patted the practice sword at his side, the only weapon his father would allow, had he known Jon had it.

"Good. Lets get going," she mounted and he followed her quickly. They met up with Derek and the rest of the squad and headed out across plots of land for farming that were being worked and into the forest. The ride, all though she was supposed to be looking for signs of Scanran raiders, she found very relaxing and spent much of the time enjoying it, basking in the gentle breeze and shade provided by the trees. Her horse she walked slowly, allowing it to slip further and further away from the group.

The gentle noises of the forest, such as a bird's call, or the rustling of leaves had a way of soothing her and she found her tense shoulders relaxing and herself lulling into a dreamy state.

It was towards the end of the trail when things began to go wrong. A bird took flight, startling Jon's pony, which had also been lulled by the gentle rhythm of the forest.

"Easy," she said, in a calm voice, grabbing for the reins. Jon had fumbled them loose when the white pony reared, clinging to its mane instead. The horse was easily settled, but by the time Jon was coaxed into continuing, the others were out of sight.

An eerie silence settled over the small section of trail they were on.

Her eyes darted quickly to the left and then the right, before she slowly motioned Jon to precede her. She stuck close to the pony's rump, her horse's shoulder pressed against it, keeping it close and her in slight control of where it went.

Quietly, she drew her sword as she heard rustling in the bushes. She knew, as the hair rose on her neck. A Scanra raiding party was tracking them. She listened closely, hearing the snapping twigs as the men stepped on them.

No horses, she thought, judging the distance to the edge of the woods. If they made it out, she could gallop the horses and protect Jon with her body from arrows. If she couldn't get them out of the forest, she would have to send Jon into a gallop after the others and fight on her own.

A sudden scream from the bushes announced the attack. With a panicked cry, she yelled at Jon "Catch up to the others" slapped his pony on the rump, dismounted and slapped her own. She had no training at all on how to fight against a person on foot while she was mounted. She would only make herself an easier target by staying on her horse.

She settled easily into her defensive stance, allowing herself one last fleeting panicked thought before shutting down her mind and anticipating the first attack.

It came at her in the form of a burly man with scraggly black hair and bad teeth, lunging in from the left. Like she had done so many times before without thought, she knocked his blow aside and sliced upwards.

Only this wasn't practice, this was real, with real swords, real people, and real flesh. Just like butter, she thought sickeningly, as the light sword with the emerald stone, faintly glowing sunk in though the man's waist and exited near his shoulder. She felt the blood hit her face as her eyes widened in utter terror at the thought of having actually stuck a man, and succeeded. His eyes widened in death, a look of pain and terror freezing in the black depths and in her mind. But she was already turning away, before the body hit the leaf-riddled ground, returning to her stance and meeting the next person.

After the first, she stopped thinking, stopped allowing herself too. To think would to be to make it all the worse, all the more real. Make her murders real.

The next happened the same way, the same way as before, but it didn't get any easier to see the death enter their eyes. Her stomach, at first queasy, had stopped existing to her all together. Everything stopped existing accept the sword in her hands and the pattern that she moved with it. The same pattern, always the same pattern, the same death.

It was over in little more then a minute, there had only been a few, she didn't bother to count. It took her several seconds to realize that it was over, she had become so automatic. And when she allowed herself to think, she whished she hadn't.

She kept seeing them, over and over, their faces and eyes and the death that she had caused in them. Kept feeling the sword as it cut through them so easily, so effortlessly. Kept smelling the blood as it welled through the open wounds. Every where she looked, she could see them, see there bodies as their spirits fled the world. And she wanted to weep and retch. Wanted to purge her of what she had done. Even seeing Robert murdered before her eyes was nothing compared to this. This, she had done, with her own will. The world spun around her.

Eventually, she began walking, slowly, dragging the sword behind her as her vision flashed with black dots. She couldn't deal with the fact that she had killed, so she shut her mind down, blocking out all thought and concentrated placing one foot in front of the other, a small frown marring her brow, her eyes scrunched in focus on the ground.

That was how the squad found her, as they charged back into the forest to back her up. But it was too late. She had already finished it. She tried to tell them that, but she couldn't get her mouth to work and it didn't seem necessary when the evidence was still strewn across the path. So she just kept walking, just kept making her feet move.

A face pressed close to hers as a name was boomed into her ears. She dimly recognized it as her own. It was repeated again, slowly, as the ice numbing her began to melt, the emotions began to heat. And she knew that she wouldn't be able to handle them, not with these people watching her.

"Torick. Are you hurt?" the voice penetrated the last of her fog and she knew who he was. Derek. Derek was asking her.

"Yes," a voice croaked from her throat, rusty from the emotions that she struggled against. With a great effort, she forced her emotions, emotions that wounded her, into a box and locked them into a corner in her heart. She would deal with them later, when she had more time and when she could allow her will to crumble.

"Where? Does it need to be seen to now? Or can you ride back?" Derek's hands were on her shoulder's pressing down as if to anchor her there. She took a small measure of comfort from it, the last little effort that she needed to push it all back. She straightened and force a weak smile, a fake one.

"I'm not hurt. I'm fine. But I would like to return to New Haven," she slide from under his hands and walked back where Wildfire was being held by Jon. He was watching her with wide eyes. He still didn't trust her, she knew, but he would respect her, now that she had shown him what she could do.

Harlow sidled over to help her into the saddle; she was too short to make it on her own. He must have seen the haunted look in her eyes earlier for he asked her quietly, "Was that your first?"

"Yes, Harlow. It was, and I'd rather just let it rest. I'm taking Jon back. I don't want to endanger him any more," Harlow nodded and rested his hand briefly, companionably, on her knee before making off with the rest to inspect the damage she had done.

The two were silent as they rode back, Jon in contemplation of the person beside him, and Tori in personal solitude, trying to strengthen her fragile mind set. She wanted to be in full control of all mind functions when she gave Derek a report of what happened when he returned.

She was surprised, to say the least, when the doors to New Haven opened to let them in and she was greeted by Jon's father. And Jon's father was not in a happy mood. That became apparent when he grabbed her left leg and tried to pull her from the saddle.

"What the hell do you think you were doing? You took my son out there without my permission! I could strangle you, you rotten, dirty little boy!" Tori, in instinct purely, kicked out with her foot, pushing him back and giving her enough time to dismount. She got a quick look at Jon's face and saw the white, pinched look. Obviously, he hadn't asked permission. Now what was she supposed to do?

"I'm sorry, sir," Gods, she didn't even know his name, "but I hadn't realized there were limitations on where I was supposed to watch him. If I had known that my baby-sitting duties were only within the confinement of these walls, I wouldn't have brought him out," she bowed her head slightly, to show obedience and hide the anger in her eyes.

"And you didn't think, not once, that you could endanger my son?" his voice had only gotten louder.

"Sir, your son was very well protected. Derek's entire squad was with us. No harm would have befallen him and none did," by now a crowd was gathering and she knew they would gobble up any gossip if they continued to argue.

But she was tired and wanted a bath to wash away the blood that was drying stickly to her hands. She grabbed her reigns as well as Jon's and walked away, leading their mounts into the stables.

She didn't say a word to Jon about lying to her. It was her fault, after all, for assuming he had asked permission. She should have checked. Instead, she asked him politely to see to it that she was given a bath and set about rubbing down there mounts.

The ritual motions of everyday occurrences helped to soothe away even more of the unsettled feelings. It was easier to shut it all off and build the wall locking it in thicker if she could get her mind away from it.

By the time she returned to her room and saw her steaming bath awaiting her, she knew she would be all right. Locking the bedroom door behind her, she stripped to the skin, through her wig in the corner and sunk into the tub to enjoy a full bath, a luxury she hadn't indulged in for a long time.

A/N So there is was. A heads up... a very important chapter is coming up.

Also, I discovered that I have in fact mentioned the woman with emerald eyes before, not nessesarily in that context, but she is mentioned in one of my stories. If you're up for a challange, I challange you to go re-read my stories and find where she is mentioned. If you can past the paragraph she's mentioned into a review on that story (not this one cause I don't want to give anything away). If you've already reviewed that chapter, send it to me when you're not logged in with your name in the space... well you should be able to figure out how. And the winner gets a prize. Well, each person that finds it gets a prize. Have fun and happy hunting!

Thanks again for reading. Review me!

Nubia


	9. Chapter Eight

A/N Thanks to all my readers who reviewed. I'm sorry it's taking awhile for me to update. Some pretty harsh things have been going on in my life and it's been hard to find time to just sit and write. But, I'm doing as best I can and know that I have no plans at all to drop this story. In fact, I can't wait to get farther ahead because I already have so much planned. Before I get into all my really long thank yous, do any of you actually read them? Or my a/n's? Anyways, thanks to:

...: Thanks for reading. And you're right, it's not her.

cloverluck11: okay... I will. lol. Have you read my other stories?

Malady Euthanasia : Well, you're welcome. Thank you for reading and your very kind words.

cylobaby: Yes, he is a trouble-maker. lol. Thanks for reading.

Irish Violinist: I'm so glad you like it. Have you read my other stories?

Tortalli: I'm so glad you like it. You should check out my other stories, see if you like them also.

seabiscuit0810: I'm so glad you like it. Do you like my other stories as well?

demented-dreamer: I see what you mean about them not adding up. But there's an explination to that. When I first started writing this story, it was on a disc. I was several chapters in when my disc completely crashed and I lost the story. I had to start all over and I made some minor changes, such as her wig color and the way that Robert died. So, for all purposes, Robert was throat was slit and Tori wears a blond wig. Also, what I meant by not a very good fighter, was 1.) she isn't very good with anything but swords, and she's fractionally good with staffs. and 2.) she has very low self confidence when it comes to her fighting skills. As for Robert's teacher, that is to remain secret until later. Thanks for reading and pointing that out to me.

warrior of tortall: I'm very very glad you love my story. Please keep writing.

Chapter Eight:

Tori sighed as she sank lower into the tub, her drying hair caught on the outside edge slinking a little bit farther into the tub with the pull. The water was nearly to her chin now, and losing the warmth that had first scalded her nearly an hour before. But she didn't care. She didn't have the motive or energy to leave the soothing presence of the water. It was almost as if the water had seeped into her soul and cleansed her.

The knock on the door didn't register her steam-clouded mind and neither did her murmured command to enter. It was the sound of the turn of the knob being caught on the lock that had her gasping into awareness.

"It's locked boy. Open it up," Derek. Water flew as she scrambled from the tub, flinging several feet into the air and across the room. She stood paralyzed in the middle of the room, naked and shivering with the cold of the air, uncertain of what she should do.

"Open up, or I'm sending Jon for a key. We need to talk, boy. Now," she heard Jon's grumbled protest and sprung into action, scrambling for her special corset and clothes. She had managed to struggle her soaking wet legs into her breeches when she heard Jon scurry away. She judged she had two minutes.

She tugged the corset over her head, over her arms and settled it at her midsection, covering her breasts. The corset was made special with soft lining on the front and laces that did up the front also so she could pull them closed by herself. She had found the corset for sale on one of the back streets of the market in Corus, at an inn called The Dog House. It had been filled to the brim with rowdy looking crowd of men that she suspected weren't exactly on the right side of the law. But the sale that had taken place had had many useful items.

She grabbed the string on the right with her left hand and the string on the left with her right hand and pulled. The sound of the strings pulling the fabric closed rustled across the room and into Derek's perked ears.

Tori's hands trembled with nerves as she tied the strings tight together and shimmed her tunic over the corset. Next came the wig. With the skill only a woman could possess, she twisted her hair into a tight knot at the back of her head and began jabbing in pins from her desk into the knot, making sure that all would be in place. As she was settling the blond wig over her head, she heard Jon return to the door.

Her knees trembled as she tightly secured the wig in place, barely finishing before it was to late. "We're coming in!" Derek called, and Tori could have sworn she heard the slightest bit of panic in his voice. The knob turned and the door swung open to reveal Derek standing in the doorway, gazing at her. He gave her a once over, nodded and asked for the report.

Slightly puzzled, she quickly relayed what had happened, hoping to get through the details as fast as possible to allow herself as little pain as possible. By the end she was exhausted and sniveling. Her hair was damp under the wig and it was cold in her room. She had forgotten to cover her feet.

"Did you really kill them all with one hit?" Jon demanded of her and she took notice of him for the first time. She looked down at him and saw the awe and respect lighting his eyes. And she couldn't help but want it to stick around. All her life she had always had someone who had known her and enjoyed her company, someone she had to take care of. Why couldn't she have that now? With Jon? He needed someone to take care of him. And she needed someone to take care of in order to keep hold of some part of herself. Everything else had been swept away in the current that had taken her through the Own.

"Yes, Jon. I really did. And if you behave, I just might show you how I did it one day," she gave him a tiny smile before looking up at Derek to find him watching her. For the first time in years that she could remember, she fought not to blush underneath a man's scrutiny.

But what was she thinking? To Derek, she was a little boy. He didn't see her as anything other then a soldier in his squad. And if he did, she would have many reasons to worry. She cleared her throat nervously.

"Dinner should be ready in the mess hall. Lets head out," He nodded his head to the door and started out, Jon close on his heels. She vaguely heard him asking if Derek knew the move Tori had used and if he would show it to him. With a chuckle she checked her face in the mirror and noticed a single lock of dark chestnut hair sticking out over her ear.

By the end of dinner, Tori was sneezing as often as she dodged glares from Jon's father. She still wasn't certain what his name was. Jon had sat beside her, pestering her with questions about battle. When he had discovered that had been her first, he was at the same time awed that she had succeeded so well and disappointed that she didn't have stories to tell. He turned to Harlow and allowed her to sniffle in solitude. Her wet hair and bare feet had given her a cold.

Merely a half hour after the dinner had started, she was finished, having eaten a few bites and managed to swallow a few sips of water, the cold had sucked nearly all her energy from her.

She sneezed once and felt her eyelids close over her dreary, bloodshot eyes. She hated being sick, and when she became sick, she often took it hard and for long periods of time. The only cure she ever knew of, besides seeing a Healer, was rest and lots of fluids.

Her fogged mind didn't take note that her energy was being drained faster and harder then any cold had power to take. But she didn't take note and instead, sneezed once more and shivered. Derek, seated next to her, must have felt the shiver, for he turned towards her with a frown. She gave a huge sniffle and crossed her arms over her chest, trying to conserve warmth. She was still cold, even after her hair had dried some and her feet had been covered.

"Are you alright?" Derek asked quietly. She nodded absently and shivered again, this time from the feel of eyes one her back. With a muffled curse she turned in her seat and glared right back at Jon's father, something that startled Derek into a laugh. Kel, hearing her sons laugh, so loud when often so silent, looked at him and the little boy beside him. The little boy that had just killed eight men.

Tori, once again sitting properly in her chair and facing her uneaten plate of food, sneezed again. Derek placed his hand on her forehead and felt the fever building there.

"Boy, you have a fever. You sure you're alright?" His voice was gruff, his commander's voice. Tori's mind knew that voice and she automatically responded to it without thinking. When he used that voice he was talking to a soldier. And soldier's were never weak, couldn't afford to be.

"Fine sir," her voice was slurred with her weariness, but she was willing to look over look that. Had to overlook it. She had to be strong, soldiers were strong. "Only a little tired from the fight is all."

He frowned at her before returning to his meal. It was several minutes before he felt her whole body trembling. He turned to her.

Tori couldn't make it stop. Her whole body was trembling, from the tips of her toes to the tips of her hair. She was almost certain her hair trembled with in the wig. But it was the ring that scared her. It was quivering against her flesh and the quivering was growing stronger. It was going to do something and she had to be alone when it happened.

With mounting haste, she stood, banging her knees on the table. But that didn't stop her. Tori's feet pounded into the ground as she ran from the mess hall, digging into her shirt and reaching for the ring, trying to get it from around her neck. She feared it would do something terrible to her.

Her seeking fingers went to the clasp at the back of her neck, thinking to unhook the thing and get it off, but it was jammed. Her breath was hitching as she slid through the open doors and out into the night in the camp. Darkness surrounded her as she fumbled. The quivering had moved to shuddering so strongly that it was leaving marks along her chest. She could feel the ring digging in.

She had reached to just yank it off but it stopped suddenly. Tori felt a presence behind her and she turned and saw—

—_a woman with her back facing her, blond hair cascading down her slim back, reaching nearly to her curved hips. Loathing reached deep into her gut and twisted it, made it seethe and fester with hate and disgust. She hated this woman, with everything that in her. Hated her, hated her even though she called her mother._

_An urge rose deep in her gut to grab hold of that soft, golden light hair and yank it out, make the woman who was so oblivious to her own daughter hurt, but she settled for clenching her hands into fists._

_She stood behind her mother, a dark scowl on her face, one her soldiers had come to fear. The war council, the one that she had called into action stared at her as the woman continued to talk and to instruct. How dare her mother think she had the power to do this? To instruct the war council?_

_The pain that began to stab through her heart made tears prick at the back of her eyes, but she could never allow them to show, could never afford to. If she were to achieve what she wanted she had to be as strong as possible. The people on the war council would never respect her if she broke down and allowed her emotions to take control._

_She cleared her throat and saw her mother's shoulder's straighten fractionally. But instead of acknowledging her daughter, she continued with her instructions. Like they would listen to her._

"_You're dismissed," her voice slithered from her throat, causing her mother's shoulder's to stiffen more. "For the moment you will forget all plans relayed to you. There's been breaking news. I will direct the next council. You will come at my call and mine alone. Understood?"_

_There was a murmured agreement and she nodded. As her council drifted from the room, she turned away from her mother and stared out the window, out across the palace walls and into the capital, Thermalie. Saw her people in the streets, her soldiers parading around the grounds on guard duty. **Hers**. _

_Her mother may have married the bastard that had given her power, but she held none of it. The old rules, which she planned to banish most when she established her kingdom, said that the wife had no power. After the husband's death, all power and assets went to the children, the son's foremost. If there were no sons, it went to the daughter until she married. Her mother was over stepping her bounds by trying to head the war council._

"_As the reigning authority, I could have you thrown into jail for you actions, Mother," the title hissed between her lips like a curse. Her spine snapped straight as she heard the woman behind her laugh, such a light, tinkling laugh. How she hated it._

"_Honey, you would never do that to me. I'm your mother," the endearment slipped from her lips as easy as any word would have. It meant nothing to her, she knew. It was her name that her mother couldn't say, never said._

"_Are you?" She wanted to turn, wanted her mother to see the fire of hatred burning in her emerald eyes, but she didn't dare. To look at her now would be to break her long held silence. She had worked so hard to conceal her true feelings._

_Tears suddenly threatened and she viciously shoved her hand into her pocket, seeking and finding the small stone. She gripped it in her hand as the tears lined her eyes, making them glassy._

"_Don't over step your place, Mother," she warned before she whispered "Sheshmaru" and disappeared from the room._

_She blinked once and found herself standing in a cave on the beach, hundreds of miles away from where she had been seconds ago. She sucked air deep into her lungs, breathing in the smell of the ocean and let it out with a sigh. It was so easy for her to escape to this place, to take a few minutes out of her hectic day to be alone._

_With a girlish giggle, she kicked off her shoes and took of sprinting from the cave and out onto the beach, down to the edge of the water's edge. Her laughter was chased away by the wind as she allowed herself to simply be what she was, an eighteen-year-old girl._

_The wind whipped the hair across her face as she laughed and laughed and laughed, until the laughter bubbled and change into hysterical sobs of pain and loss. Without consciously thinking of doing it, she crumpled to the ground and pulled her knees up to her chest to bury her face in._

_Her heart bleed red tears as her eyes poured out clear ones. No matter how old she got, how independent, how distant, she would always be hurt by her mother. Always. There was no way she could escape it. _

_For as long as she could remember, she had never had her mother's love or even her mother's attention. Never. Her mother was so kind to everyone, so sweet and caring. At least, she was like that to everyone but her own flesh and blood. She had even been nice to the murderous raping bastard that had been her husband. To her own daughter, she couldn't even bother to smile at. It would have been so much easier if her mother had hated her, loathed her, shown some emotion. But she showed nothing. In her daughter, the woman had no interest at all. To her mother, she was but a shadow on the wall, a flicker in a candle's light. She was beneath her notice and her affections. She was beneath everything._

_As a child, she had soon learned that she would never amount to anything in her mother's eyes, and she had learned to accept it. But it didn't stop it from hurting every time she looked into her mother's eyes and saw nothing. _

_She gave a lone sniffle and brushed away her tears. It wasn't often that she allowed her mother's behavior to upset her so much that she cried, but every once in a while, she needed an escape. She sighed and stood, brushing the sand from her pants and calmly closed all emotions from her thoughts. Quite simply, she froze it over, turning her mind into ice until her thoughts were once again cold and calculated. It was the easiest way for her to rule and to think._

_She stretched her arms up over her head and looked out at sea, noticing for the first time clouds low to the horizon. Her face puzzled into a frown as she looked at the clouds, they were perfectly white and close to the horizon line. To white…a cloud that close to the horizon would have been touched by the setting sun, turning it another color, marring it. But not these._

_Because they weren't clouds. They were sails._

_The Tortallan's had finally joined the battle. They were coming to attack. With a mixture of pleasure and panic, she grabbed from her pocket a velvet sack and held it tightly in her hand and headed back to the cave for her shoes.

* * *

_

Tori's eyes blinked open as she awakened fractionally. She moaned and rolled to the side, or tried to. But something was holding her down. Her groggy mind registered only the restraint and she began to struggle to get lose, wanting away from whatever was bogging her down.

She was panting for breath by the time she managed to struggle herself out from under the restraints and onto the floor. The jolt of falling cleared away all fog and she realized it was blankets.

Reaching with her hand she searched to rub at the nagging headache, but her hand stopped mid way there. There was something in her hand. Something soft and hard. And big.

Curious, she folded her legs under her as she returned her hand to her lap. She bent her head closer to see in the dim light, for it was dark in the… well, wherever she was.

Slowly, she allowed her fingers to open. In her palm she found a velvet bag, the one that she had dreamed of. She already knew what was inside, she didn't have to look. It would be stones, lots of them, each with a different purpose. What the purpose was, she did not yet know.

Unexpectedly she sneezed. The sound seemed to break the silence that had surrounded her. Two feet thunked to the ground and from her vantage point of nearly under the bed, she looked across the other side of it and saw the two feet that she had heard hit. The large feet, for they were quite big, shifted as the man stood. They shifted even more as he placed both hands on the bed and looked over to see her on the ground.

"You're finally awake, little Tori."

A/N Who could that be? Standing over her bed and using a her nickname when almost everyone calls her kid or boy? Guess you'll have to wait and find out.

Review me!

Nubia


	10. Chapter Nine

A/N I warn you now, this one will be shorter then my previous chapters. But the next one will be longer, I promise. So, yeah. Thanks to...

...: You're more right then you think. lol. Thanks for reading.

cherryfearie: Nope, it's not Harlow. And yeah, it was kinda creepy how she had the bag. Thanks for reading.

Sammey: Yes, I am. lol. No, it's not Derek.

Mage Light: That's what they tell me :)

Demeanted-dreamer: I can see how you can link it to Alanna's story. But actually, it wasn't the cold that did it. It was something else. And it will be explained later.

Warrior of Tortall: I'm so very glad you like it so much.

Nubia: Kinda weird that you have my same name, but thanks for the compliment.

Wingrider: Hee... yeah... cliffie's don't seem to be a public favorite.

Cylobaby: Hey, glad you like it. And thanks for your kind words.

cloverluck11: Don't feel that you have to read it. I was just suggesting. lol. Thanks for reading.

Chapter Nine:

Derek's mind wandered from the battle tactics discussion before him and back to the pale face of Torick. The boy had been out cold for nearly two full days and it wasn't a normal sleep. It was one that he couldn't seem to wake up from. No matter what any of them tried, the boy remained deaf and dumb to everything except his dreams.

Neal had suspicions that it was a magic induced trance because of the way it had taken so suddenly and had hung on so stubbornly. He had finally sent a runner for Numair to see if he could pull the boy out of it.

He frowned as he thought back two days before. He had nearly swallowed his own tongue when he had followed the boy outside and he had collapsed in his arms. He had been moaning and groaning and thrashing his head from side to side. But that had barely lasted. Then he had gone completely still, his only movement flinches of his eyes.

Derek remembered the clamoring worry that he had felt as he had rushed the boy to infirmary and he had remained so still, so quiet accept for the little face twitches. He had only been this scared once before. It had been a foolish mistake to be scared then. He should have known Torick would never have done what he had feared.

Several years ago, he had had a squad member similar to Torick. Very similar. He had been so very innocent and unfit for fighting, just like Torick. And when he had been forced to kill someone, it had broken him, heart and soul. The same day that he had killed the man, he hung himself in his room.

When Derek had seen the look on Torick's face after he had killed those bandits, he had relived that moment where he had walked into the young man's room and saw him dangling from the rafters by a rope. But before he could get to talk to Torick and see if he would be all right, he had slipped away and into his room.

Derek had, quite simply, panicked. He had hurried to the boy's room as fast as possible, but the silence in the room beyond had made his hands tremble. He hadn't thought he would be able to face another dead body, another lost soul because of what he had done. That was the part that had hurt the most the first time. The fact was that if he hadn't ordered the young man to kill, he wouldn't have killed himself.

What bothered him most about the whole ordeal was the fact that his fear of losing the boy had been ten times as worse then anything he had ever felt for the young man he had lost. His feelings towards Torick were rapidly growing. He was beginning to view him as a brother, as a friend. And that was the number one rule that he had never broken. He had never been friend to his soldiers.

Yet, even as he began to view him as a brother, he also knew that the boy was keeping something from him. Something vitally important. The boy had a troubled past, he knew it, could see it in his eyes. Sometimes Torick's eyes would take on this look that was heartbreaking. When he saw that look, he felt his chest ache with the need to protect the boy from the pain.

Already in his mind and heart, he was on the same level as his sister. The boy was part of his family, more so then others because Derek felt so close to him. He could relate to him so well, even though they barely spoke. But Derek often times found himself observing Torick.

The only thing that kept him from expressing his brotherly affections towards the boy was that fact that Torick was hiding something from him. He had seen the lock of hair hanging out from beneath Torick's wig, now that he knew that it was a wig. The fact that he had to hide his true appearance made it all the worse. What had the boy done to have to hide so far from his true self? What had happened to him?

And that was one of the problems. He knew so little about the boy, barely anything at all. He had shown up out of the blue and had dragged with him shadows and lies. But he couldn't fault Torick for it because who was to say that he wouldn't do the same thing in Torick's situation, whatever that was?

His confusing and all to emotional thoughts were cut off when Jon burst into the room breathing heavily, sucking in air, as would a fish on dry land. "He's awake!" he shouted before collapsing into a chair. Derek wasn't the only one that had worried over Torick.

Derek bowed to his mother and Jon's father, Mark, and left the room, heading for the infirmary. He had a few questions to ask the boy. He knew now, that this wasn't the first time this had happened to him. Derek remembered now that time at the fire where he had fallen to the ground. That had been another trance, but that one had been shorter and much easier to wake him from.

Derek pushed that aside also, and hurried on. Numair would find out what was wrong with the boy when he arrived in a few days.

* * *

"You're finally awake, little Tori."

Tori stared up at him with wide, emerald eyes and squeaked in fright. All she saw was his brown hair and green eyes and knew fear. Hadn't the person that attacked her before, in the barracks back at the capital, looked like him? Hadn't he known her also?

She forced herself backwards, scrambling away from him as her hand dug into the bag, searching with nimble fingers for something. She found it, seized it in her hand seeking comfort from the knowledge that if she wanted to she could use it.

"Don't be frightened. I mean you no harm. I'm Neal, you're healer. Do you know where you are?" he asked, lifting a sharp eyebrow in inquiry. Tori's mind was settling slightly, but she couldn't make herself relax, couldn't help feeling that something was going to happen to her.

"New… New Hope?" her hand seized on another rock, and she gripped it hard, her nails eventually digging into her skin. The fog was lifting and she was beginning to understand what was happening. But that still didn't explain who he was or what he was doing in the room with her.

He leaned forward suddenly and she panicked, scrambling to her feet and shouting, hoping hearing her hysterics, he would frighten and run. "What do you want from me?"

"I just want to help, little Tori, that's all. I'm a healer. Now, sit back down," he motioned gently to the bed but she wasn't having any of it.

"Like you wanted to help Robert? He's dead, you bastard! I'll believe you when I see his face alive once more! Get out, before I call for help!" she backed up more until she bumped into something. She startled forward slightly, spun around and nearly melted with relief. It was Derek. "Help me. That man's evil!"

"Boy, that man is the healer," Derek barked, his voice gruff, but she could see his eyes sparkling with laughter. Even though she had heard the man say that he was the healer, she didn't believe it until Derek said it.

"Oh…" she let out a little puff of breath with that admonition. She slowly turned back to the man who was standing there, also laughing, but more forth right then Derek, and felt her cheeks blush with heat.

"Duke Nealan of Queensgrove, knight and healer. And you would be?" he held out his hand to her as he laughed out loud and she gripped it lightly before answering.

"Embarrassed?"

* * *

Soon after waking, it became obvious that something had occurred while she had been asleep. Something drastic that had made the other's worry. She could see it in the way Neal frowned at her and the way Derek watched her.

She cleared her throat after she had gotten over her embarrassment and managed to ask without blushing, "How long was I asleep?"

"Two days," Derek answered. She paled fractionally. She hadn't known a cold could take her out so far. She had thought it was just a simple cold, but it must have been something more then that. But now that she thought about it, something else had happened…

She gasped as it came flooding back to her. The ring! She had to check herself before she went digging through her tunic to grasp at it. It had pulled her into another vision! Her eyes shadowed as she thought of what had happened.

She had felt the pull of the ring before it had happened and had tried to stop it, but never the less it had gotten to her. And it had sucked her under… for two days. But she hadn't come back empty-handed. She had awoken with the bag.

Where had the bag gone?

"Little Tori, what is this?" she startled at the name, still unused to the sound of it. No one here called her by that, but she supposed that Neal had a right to after he had taken care of her for two days. She turned to see him holding the bag in his hand.

With amazingly fast speed for someone who had been out cold for two days, she scrambled to her feet and snatched the bag from his hand. "Nothing!" she hissed before hiding it behind her back.

"Funny though, I don't remember you having that when you were brought into the infirmary," he frowned at her again, but she had turned away from him, lost in thought.

She had seen that bag, in the dream. It was filled with rocks, she remembered touching them, knowing that they would work. But now she doubted if they would. And she didn't want to try.

If they were real… then that meant what she saw in her visions were real. That she was really connected to the person in her dreams. And it scared her to think about it. It wasn't natural, what she was able to see in her dreams. It wasn't right that she was able to bring something back with her through the dreams. And it certainly wasn't right if the objects worked.

"Care to explain how you came by those?" Neal asked quietly, hoping to startle her into answering. It failed.

"I had them with me the whole time, you must have just missed them," she gave a shrug and started for the door. She wanted to get to her room where she would be able to think this through by herself.

"Boy," Derek's command had her stopping just before the door. She turned back to frown at him, and saw that he was frowning also. "I have questions for you, and they will be answered."

She gave him one last good frown before turning and walking away. She heard Derek's laughter and nearly smiled herself.

* * *

The Prophet watched the words as another false branch faded and died. She was on the right path still… but the true way was growing narrower and would soon become harder to pass.

He read the words farther on and knew soon it would be time to interfere again. It wouldn't be the first time that he had been given need to interfere. He only mourned that again it wouldn't be him that went to her aid.

There was just so much here that he had to see to, so many paths that he had to monitor to make sure everything was going well. There were so many false branches, so many places where she could go wrong and falter that he wasn't sure even if he interfered if she would make it. But he had to try for the sake of the country he had to try.

He watched as another branch was lost and he knew joy. She had managed to escape through that gnarly pass without a fault. He smiled proud of her, but then the smile vanished.

Across the page, where her true path lay, the words were changing. A person, someone he hadn't seen before, was making a place for himself within the prophecy, a place that he hadn't known was open. The path was changing now, and it was becoming more dangerous. It was time for him to interfere.

* * *

"Where is she!" The master screamed as he hurled his wine glass at the wall. His eyes were blood shot and his face was pale. Zahib watched him with distant eyes, bored by what he saw.

For the past two days he had watched with amusement as the girl had been connected to the ancient power and used it quite forcefully. It had rubbed against the master's skin, making him itch and gripe. But what Zahib found funniest about it, was that though the girl had used the powers, the master hadn't been able to locate her. He himself had a very good idea where the girl was.

But if the master knew how much power Zahib had gathered to himself, the master would have his bowers kill him. But soon, soon he would have more power then the master and he would be in charge.

Soon, he would be the master and he would get the girl. And the ring. And then his people would return to where they belonged. With him on the throne and them as his subjects.

A/N Well, there it was. Hope you enjoyed. Review me!

Nubia


	11. Chapter Ten

A/N I know, it's been awhile, but my school only got out on Friday, so sue them not me. lol. But yep, it's summer and I'm not making any promises, but sense my days will be empty, it is logical to assume that I will have more time to write. Anyways, thanks to..

Cloverluck 11: Thanks

Sammey: The wig stayed on because she didn't move very much during her trance so therefore, it had no reason to come lose

Mage Light: I'm glad that you love it

Cherryfearie: Yes it was a very sad story. I'm just glad that it wasn't a real one.

Demented-dreamer: Isn't it though? And I'm glad that you love it.

cylobaby: Thanks for that. I wasn't sure what it was and was to lazy to go look it up. lol.

warrior of tortall: I'm glad that you like it so much

Wingedrider: Well... I can't say who/what has the power. You'll just have to wait for the end where everything is revealed in a big shocking moment. Fun huh? lol. And I've recently been thinking of writing a story about Neal. A fluff story actually. lol.

Okay... on to the story.

Chapter Ten:

_The woman stood from the bed, her tattered dress barely hanging from her shoulders. She didn't bother wiping the tears from her wet cheeks. To wipe them away would be to acknowledge the weakness within her. She wasn't weak, she was the strongest woman in the world. One man who thought he owned her would never change that. _Couldn't_ change that. Never again would she allow herself to be so helpless_.

_She grabbed the ring, the emerald blazing at her touch, from the table beside the bed that she had hated so much. She slipped it onto her finger as she walked through the door and didn't look back. _This_, she thought,_ will be the sign of my freedom, and my strength.

_She strode across the room, her hand reaching into the pocket of the dress that was hanging from her shoulders. She had been dragged into that room a girl that hadn't known the truth about the world. But now her eyes were open, even as her body ached from the abuse. She knew the truth of the world, of the bastards that had claim of the throne. But soon that would change. Very soon._

_It didn't take long for her to manage to return to her room. By the horrified gasps she received from her chamber maids, she knew that the man, she didn't even know his name, hadn't been nice to her in any way. She turned to the mirror and saw the bruises beginning to form just beneath her skin._

_A growl spewed from her throat but she didn't allow herself to look away. She knew what she had looked like just hours before and she could see that she had changed. The light that had shined so bright in her eyes was muted and dull and the innocence that had softened her face was gone. Instead the so newly forced knowledge had made her features sharp, the lines stern. The healthy flush in her face was gone and pallor had taken residence in her skin._

_But what had really changed about her, were her emotions. Once, everything had been so intense, her emotions so free and real. So alive. So hot. Now, it was like ice had settled over her emotions and turned them to solid blocks that would never melt. And for the life of her, she couldn't seem to make herself want them to unfreeze. It was safer for her if they remained frozen. Forever._

_She turned away from the mirror, her thoughts leaving her appearance and centering in on the half-formed thoughts of rebellion. No longer though, would they be only half-formed. She was going to take them to the limit._

_As she exited the room, her hand closed around the ceremonial sword that had been given to her when she had become a woman. No longer would it be just for decoration._

_The hand that had rested in her pocket slowly drew out a velvet bag as she glided down the hall, her face marred into a frown. Her searching fingers touched upon the stone. She knew which one it was without looking, as each stone had different feel to it. With the stone that she wanted grasped between her fingers she spoke the word._

"_Sheshmaru," and within a blink she was standing in the ambassador's council room. Not once did she regret what she did next.

* * *

_

Tori's foot slammed into the ground and she stumbled into Derek, her shoulder coming away slightly sore. Derek turned and gave her a funny little look, his eyes searching hers.

Hastily she looked down at her feet and shrugged mulishly. She knew what he would see in her eyes if he continued to look into them. No matter how much she shielded them, he always ended up seeing the truth of what she felt.

And this was something she would never allow him to see. Couldn't allow him to see. It was bad enough that Neal had suspected magic was involved with her trances, and that the mage Numair was coming into New Haven to look at her. But if he saw what the trances did to her, she wasn't sure how either one of them would react.

Her hands trembled slightly as they sought out the sword that rested on her hip. The ceremonial sword, she thought as she contained a shudder. The violence that this sword had seen on it's first night was still a mystery to her, but she was certain that it wouldn't be long before she saw the rest of that night.

She was seeing so much of the woman now that it scared her. It seemed not a day went by that she didn't witness another clip of the woman's life. The woman who looked just like her. She knew it to be true, now that she had seen herself in the mirror. It was uncanny that they looked exactly alike, but somehow it hadn't surprised her. Their inner thoughts and emotions (what little the woman displayed) were so similar, so very the same, it was only natural for them to have the same outward appearance.

What spooked her were the rocks that rested within a velvet bag. Though she had told Neal that she had always had them, she couldn't lie to herself. They had appeared in her hand sometime over the two days she had been stuck within the vision. There was nothing natural about the fact that she had them with her now.

There was nothing natural about any of it. Not a thing of it made sense to her, or had really, any way of coming about. Yet somehow it had. And something told her that there was much more in store for her. Much more then she wished.

She sighed and continued to follow Derek down to the gates. They were awaiting the arrival of the mage and his wife, the Wild Mage. She couldn't help but wish something would keep the two from reaching New Haven.

Her hopes were dashed when the guards on watch duty shouted their approach. Derek, who turned to tell Tori to be on her best behavior, watched her shoulder's slump. Tori gave a long-winded sigh and prepared herself for the inevitable.

The two would watch her like a hawk for their stay, but they would do it discreetly, without her knowing. Which meant she had to be on top of things until they left, couldn't let her guard down at any time. It would be rough, but she was willing to do it. She had to do it. Robert would never be allowed to rest in peace unless she succeeded at this.

The gates were pulled wide and two people cantered their horses into the fort. They were laughing and looking into each other's eyes, but as they pulled to a stop, the mage's, Numair's, whipped around and zeroed in on her. They searched her eyes briefly before dropping to her chest where they lingered and puzzled into a frown.

Her hand fluttered before settling across the ring that rested there, gripping it slightly as she scowled up at him. As she closed off Numair's sight to the ring, he seemed to pull back and regained control on himself.

"Hello Derek!" Numair called as he dismounted. Derek gave a bow, but had to nudge Tori, who was still busy glaring at Numair. She straightened, gave a sniff of her nose and turned on her heel to saunter away.

She chose to not hear Derek's summing her back and instead sped up her pace until she was eating up the ground between them. The last thing she wanted was to be around the two people that had the power to ruin everything for her.

And the way that he had stared at her chest! If she hadn't known that her breasts were firmly bound and hidden from notice she would have been offended. Instead, she was suspicious. What had he been staring at? He couldn't know about the ring… could he?

She shrugged silently and headed into the main building, in search of Jon. After all, he was her duty also. She hummed to herself quietly as she headed down the hall, peeking into rooms as she went.

She stopped for a moment as she looked into her own room and saw the bag of rocks sitting on the desk. She stared at them for several seconds, feeling the pull in her soul to go to them. To hold them. She had felt this before, in her visions, but she had never experienced it first hand. It unnerved her and she found it much easier to simply put them in her pocket.

With slow steps, she slunk into her room. The pull became stronger with each step she took towards it, but the feeling wasn't unpleasant. Just different. She frowned and continued closer towards them.

As her fingers closed over the bag the sound of footsteps approaching her room rang through her ears. She turned her body, her ring catching on the strings of the corset and rubbing against her skin.

* * *

_Not once did she regret what she did next._

_The sword made a hissing noise as she released it from its sheath. The blood zinged through her veins as she strode forwards into the room, sword held before her. She saw the ambassador's who sat around the circular table, discussing things, things that no one besides them were allowed to hear. That was something that had always made her so angry, that no one but them were allowed to hear what was said. Now, it simply strengthened her resolve._

_As the balding men that had run to fat finally took notice of her silent approach into the room, the talk fell into silence. The men forced their glares onto her, for the image of an innocent young girl still clung to her, despite the changes that had occurred. But soon, soon they would know._

_When the glares had no affect on her, the head ambassador decided to speak. "What are you doing in here, young lady?" he asked, but still she made no sound. As she came level with the table, she allowed her features to twist into a malicious grin._

_The first death was easy for her, easier then she had expected it to be. She had never before taken any sorts of weapons training, but the sword just fit so naturally into her hand. The blood that glistened along the thin blade made her smile only deepen. At last, justice was being done._

_The rest of the ambassador's were nearly as easy to kill as the first, even though the element of surprise was no longer on her side. When only one man was left, the man who had first spoken, she turned to him, regarding him with solemn eyes. She knew he had more to say._

"_You know what this means, don't you?" his voice rasped from his throat, it had become so choked with his own fear._

_Her head bobbed down once, quickly before the word slipped out from between her lips, dark with pleasure. _

"_War."

* * *

She came back gasping, as her stomach turned with nausea. She had known it would be bad, but she had never expected that it would be that terrible. She could hear the footsteps once more and she knew that it hadn't been long since she had entered the vision._

She also knew by the trembling of her limbs that she was in no shape to be under someone's scrutiny, especially the mage's. So, with as much haste as she could muster, she scrambled over her desk and out the window. Her feet plopped neatly to the ground and she duck-walked to the left, so her body wouldn't be visible if someone looked out the window.

When she had made it safely around a corner she stood fully and stalked to the stable. Tori needed time to be alone, and she knew that she would only get that if she managed to leave the fort. And so she would.

The stables were dim and empty when she sidled into them so it was easy for her to saddle Wildfire and slip out towards the gate. It was even easier to leave the fort. Though she had to lie and say Derek had sent her out on errands, she forgave herself that when the fresh air and loss of surrounding walls made her smile.

The images that had been so close to the surface faded as the call of a bird washed across her senses. She sighed as she felt her tense muscles relax and allowed Wildfire to carry her deep into the forest. She didn't care where she went, as long as she got a chance to be away.

It wasn't until a while later that she realized she still had the bag of rocks clutched in her hand. She stared down at the little bag, knowing that this was the final clue. If she did this there would be no turning back. If she used the rocks everything she feared would come true.

She would be connected magically to another person.

But what frightened her more then the fact that she wasn't normal like other people, or that the magic that was surrounded by her wasn't normal and could possibly be evil, was the fact of who the person was. The person that she was connected to, who was so similar to, was in ways, very evil herself. She killed and she enjoyed it, thrived on it. Her thoughts were ruthless, and she strived always to get where she wanted to be, no matter how many people she had to crush to get there.

That was what scared. Because if she was connected to that woman, how much was the woman and how much was herself? Where was the boundary on who was who? Where was the line that distinguished what belonged to which woman? And what if there was no line? What if everything she was meant nothing? What if everything she was was really the woman in her dreams?

What if, by being able to use these rocks, she lost everything that was her and became simply the woman in her dreams?

Those confusing thoughts were what had her shaking in fear.

But she didn't hesitate once her mind was made up. Almost without a thought her hand reached into the bag and grabbed onto the tiny rock. She knew which one she wanted, though there were hundreds in the bag, but she had no trouble picking out which one she wanted. For each one felt infinitely different in her hand, yet at the same time, nearly the same.

Looking at them she knew that she would see no difference. And to another person she knew that they wouldn't be able to tell the difference. These rocks were special to her and her alone. No one else would ever be able to use them. They didn't have the blood.

Slowly, as though her muscles had trouble moving, she placed one rock on the ground and turned her back to it, walking steadily away, her little back strong and straight, her shoulders thrown back.

With a quick indrawn breath, she reached into the bag and grabbed the second rock and pulled it out. As she exhaled the breath, she allowed the word to slip from between her lips and be carried away by the wind, "Sheshmaru."

Her eyes closed on a blink and as her lashes fluttered down, she heard the wind whisper past her ears, felt the wig hair ruffle as she soared through the short distance that separated her from the locater rock. Her hands clutched at her midriff as she felt a deep sensation within her belly. It felt as if a hook had been driven into her belly, behind her navel and was being pulled forward. It wasn't painful so much as uncomfortable and she made a grunting noise.

And as her eyes opened up from that blink, she was slamming into the ground, her legs falling out from under her. The breath that had been in her lungs whooshed out and the bones in her arms went to jelly. But her hand, the one that had held the first rock, was once again touching her. And she was staring before at the spot that she had stood not a moment before. In the time that it had taken her to blink she had been able to cross the distance.

Her hands wanted to shake, the tears wanted to gather and she so very badly wanted to get away from it all, wanted to go back to before Robert had been killed and everything had been normal. But she couldn't do that, she couldn't allow herself to fold. For the sake of Robert she wouldn't allow herself to.

Instead, she forced herself to her feet and examined what had happened. Both rocks were now in her hands and both felt exactly the same. It seemed the rocks were easy to use. But there had to be more purposes to the other rocks, for not all of them were locater rocks. But would all of them respond to the magic word?

And what were the limits of the locater rocks? Could they only span a certain distance? And could they only bring her? Or would they allow more to travel with her? She had to know before she used them. One day she might have only these rocks to depend on. She had to know.

With a determined scowl on her face, she left the home rock, the one that she would be brought to, where she was standing and slowly mounted her hose, before riding several feet away. Once again, she grabbed the field rock, the rock that she would hold when she said the magic word, and whispered the word and once again she felt the tug.

This time, when she opened her eyes, her horse was bolting out from under her. She grabbed onto Wildfire's mane and soothed her with calming words. But again it had worked. All that needed improvement was her horse's reaction to the sensations.

Starting over, she dropped the home rock and kicked her mare into action. She would try this run from farther away. She galloped Wildfire for several minutes before stopping her and whispering the word, field rock firmly in hand.

The sensation overtook her again, and when they landed at her home rock, Wildfire did startle, but she didn't try to bolt. Tori had known that she had picked a good horse, but this only confirmed it. Wildfire was a fast learner and adjusted easily to things. And this only proved it.

She would do it again, but this time she wanted to be farther away. Again she urged Wildfire into a gallop, but she kept her running for at least two miles before stopping and retrying it. Again, after saying the word, they were returned to the home rock and again it happened within the space of time that it took to blink. And this time, Wildfire did less the snort.

But the process was wearing. Already she could feel her shoulders tensing and her limbs shaking with exhaustion. It physically strained her body to travel like this. But in a pinch it would help her more then anything else would.

Tori would put it to one more test though. The final one before she would trust it within a sticky situation. Once again, she turned her horse and set it to running, but this time, she kept her going for nearly two hours in a steady run back towards the capital. She had spanned nearly ten miles before she stopped and took a deep breath.

When she said the word this time, she felt the pull but it was much stronger, like a giant had hooked her like a fish and was yanking her back with all his might. She closed her eyes tight and clenched her jaw, but before she had a chance to panic, it was over. She was once again back where she had started. And it was getting dark.

With a sigh, she replaced the rocks in the bag, and tied the bag to her waist. She had been out her all day, testing the rocks, and she was ready to be inside and asleep. She knew she wouldn't have peaceful sleep, when did she ever? But this time, she was prepared for it.

Something had occurred to her when she had been testing the rocks. She had been worried that she would no longer know who she was, but now she saw that she did.

She was Torianna the companion, and Torick in the Own. She was Robert's sister and Derek's soldier. She was the unwanted child of two parents and the burden of an old nurse.

And never would she be the woman who was in her dreams.

A/N... well there you have it. Did you like it? I hope so. Also, I've been thinking of writing a fluff story about Neal, but it wouldn't be with Ms. Peirce's character as his love. It would be one of my own. What do you guys think about that? Review me!

Nubia


	12. Chapter Eleven

A/N Well... yes. I did indeed update today. So yeah. But I just want to clarify, when I wrote of Tori from other people's point-of-view I used the pronoun's she and her. But that's only because it would get confusing, for me mostly and maybe you too, if I had referred to her as a he. So, yeah... no one knows that she's a girl. Now... on to my shout outs

Lain the Fluff Master: Sadly, I have not been able to get my hands on Frankenberries. lol. And don't worry about being a bad fan-girl. I am able to say the same about myself.

...: I'm not sure what didn't make sense to you, but if you have any questions about the last chapter feel free to ask me and I'll try to explain as best I can.

cloverluck11: Well, if I do write that story, which I'm not certain about any more cause I started it and it didn't go as I thought it would, I'll be sad to miss your reviews.

Mage Light: lol... I think you must be a grammar queen. I can really never find these errors, but I do try to catch them. But grammar was never my thing. Please excuse me if there are any errors.

Demented-dreamer: If you're wondering where she got the name for the rocks, she made the names up. If you're wondering how she knew that there was a home rock and a field rock, I guess I just didn't explain it well enough... or maybe I forgot too. But how she knew was because the woman knew and because she's connected to the woman she has the knowledge also. It's not really a conscious knowledge, just something that's there and she doesn't have to think about it at all. Does that explain?

Wingedrider: I'm glad you liked the rocks. I've been working on those for a long time. And there's more to come with them too!

Fyr's Shadow: Interesting review. I can see how you would think that Neal and Numair would be able to tell. If I had been reading this story objectively I would have thought so to. lol. And they probably could be able to. But it doesn't fit with the story. So, yeah... lol. And I can't wait for the others to find out she's a girl either! It's gonna be so much fun to write! Also, I'm curious as to why you think the woman from the dreams is evil. Not that I'm saying she isn't or that she is for that matter. But why do you think she is? And on a final note, have you read my other stories? I think you'd enjoy them also.

warrior of tortall: I think your questions will be answered quite nicely in this chapter.

Faelin: I'm so glad that you like this story. Have you read my others? Actually, this is the final story in a triligy. lol. And thank you for the compliment.

Chapter Eleven:

The next morning, when Tori awoke, it was to the very annoying sounds of poundings on her door. She supposed that the pain in her head must have begun when the pounding on the door started because the pounding in her head was banging to the rhythm of the banging on the door. With a thoroughly angered grumble, she slammed her way across the room and yanked the door open, her face set in a furious scowl.

Derek, surprised beyond belief at the sight of his innocent little Torick scowling, stood on the other side of the open door. At least he was surprised until he heard her mumble out a swear word and then surprise turned into downright shock. His eyebrows raised and he studied the young soldier.

She looked very worse for wear, in Derek's opinion. There were deep shadows under her normally bright green eyes. Now, the young man's eyes were dull with… fatigue? Derek wasn't certain. What he was certain about was if Torick didn't start acting normal, he was sending for Neal again.

"What?" Tori snapped, her voice crackling like thunder through the air, filling it with a tension that had never before appeared between them. She would have noticed it too, if the pounding in her head would simply just stop.

"You do not speak to your commander that way!" Derek barked, so furious and, yes hurt, that Torick would use that tone with him that he didn't see the boy flinch with pain at the raised voice.

"Well sir, don't shout at me!" Tori yelled back and winced again, this time though, it was her fault. She was just so tired, she thought as she controlled the urge to drop her aching head into her hands. She know she had gotten sleep, she had fallen into bed only moments after getting to her room a little after dusk the night before. But now it felt as if she hadn't slept in days, weeks even.

"You took that tone with me before I shouted!" Derek again shouted and considered laughing at the conversation, but he was to frustrated, and yes he had admitted already, hurt, to do so. Torick was not acting at all like the kind young boy he knew. What was wrong?

"That is not of importance. What is of importance is that you still haven't stopped yelling at me!" she returned fire in a voice just as loud and wished when she was tired she could be able to control herself as she could when she was well rested. She was never argumentative when she was well rested. And certainly she wasn't stubborn enough to yell just to irk her commander even though it caused her pain and him nothing but a mild discomfort, when she was well rested.

"I will stop yelling at you when you stopped yelling at me!" he roared, his face going red with the furiousness, and yes, hurt—why did he keep having to remember that part? —that was welling up in him.

"But you started it!" she roared back herself and felt a whimper catch in her throat. Really, this was doing her anything but good, so why couldn't she stop? She knew that it would be ever so easy for her to just admit defeat and turn back into the room, but there was something that was holding her back. But what?

"It doesn't matter who started it! What matters is that I, your commanding officer, shall finish it!" Ah… that was it, Tori thought with a grateful sigh. It was hurt… welling up through her body and stabbing into her heart. She was hurt that Derek was treating her like this. Couldn't he see that she wasn't feeling well? Wasn't well rested? Couldn't he forgive a girl for being under the weather? With that pitiful thought, she gave into the need and dropped her aching head into her waiting hands.

She was certain when she went to dress in a moment or two, the evidence of her under-the-weather-ness would make itself known. She would have to sneak off and wash her clothes in secret again… she sighed, shook her head slightly and turned to close the door, more then willing to block Derek from her mind. He was hurting her anyways, why should she be nice to him?

But as the door began to close, she felt more then heard Derek slam his fist into the door to keep it from closing. The vibrations from the sudden force slamming into the door, shook up her arm across her shoulders and down to her feet. Startled, she looked up at Derek with wide, innocent eyes.

"Don't you ever close a door on me, Torick. Not ever," his voice was no longer a shoot but that didn't mean it was any less frightening. His usual deep voice had dropped another octave making it like dark smoke slithering around her. And the hardness in it, it had been like liquid stone, wrapping around her and crushing her in an embrace of fear.

She turned her startled green eyes up to his face and saw it now, as clearly as day. She had hurt his feelings. But as quickly as it was there, he had put it away, shuttering it from her view. He hadn't meant for her to see it, but now that she had, she felt even worse.

"I'm sorry, Derek," she whispered, her voice too faint for him to hear the little catch in it. Now, not only was she hurt by what he had said, she was hurt by what she had said that had made him hurt. Life was so complicated all of a sudden, she thought. Where had these feelings come from?

A week ago, Derek could have shouted at her all he wanted and she wouldn't have minded. Or would she? Was she really as indifferent to Derek as she thought she had been? That first night at the tavern, when she had first met him, hadn't she felt drawn to him? Hadn't she wanted something more from him?

And what had that something more been? What had she been looking for when she saw him in the tavern that fateful night? And if she had suppressed those feelings for so long, why the hell had they jumped out for no reason all of a sudden? And therefore, if they were just repeats of the same feeling long ago, were they still as potent, still as real?

And what were they? Her head was ready to explode and it was all his fault. First, he had pounded on her door making her have this damn headache, then he had shouted at her and made it worse. And now… now he was making her feel all these feelings that she never wanted to feel in the first place. Well… that was a lie… maybe she had wanted to feel them back at the tavern, but now they had no room.

But, well… she couldn't really say anything to him, because obviously she had hurt his feelings so she had to get out of that without making it worse. But hadn't she just apologized? It was his turn to apologize, not that he would. He wasn't a man to go and apologize for no reason. He probably didn't realize he had even done something wrong. It was on the tip of her tongue to demand it when he shocked the words right out of her.

"I'm sorry also, Torick. I shouldn't have yelled. Lets start the day over. Are you ready for breakfast boy?" he gave her a devilish grin and motioned for her to go before him out the door.

"I need to dress, sir. I'll meet you in the mess hall," she gave him a small smile, really just a tug on the corners of her lips, and moved to close the door again. He put his foot in the way of the door.

"I'll wait for you out here then," he told her with another smile. He had come to the door for a reason and now that he remembered it, he wasn't letting Torick get away. Numair, after catching only a glimpse of him, had enlisted Derek's help in sticking close to the boy.

"No, it's alright. I know the way to the mess hall. I'll meet you there," she gave another tugged lip-corners smile and tried again once more to close the door. But once more Derek didn't let her do it.

"I said I'd wait for you. You wouldn't argue with you commanding officer would you?" he demanded in his commander's voice, but in his eyes she could see the twinkle of laughter. With a sigh she nodded and closed the door.

She changed hurriedly and stuffed her soiled clothes into the space between her mattress and the bed frame, where she stashed everything she didn't want the maids for that week to find. She'd have to sneak back in later and wash them herself.

When she opened the door again it was to see Derek's intense gaze focused on where the door would have been had she left it closed. Instead it was fixed intently on her chest. She felt an instant flutter in her chest and knew it to be her heart. But why the hell was it doing that?

With a scowl, she snapped at him that she was hungry then stormed down the hall, intensely perturbed at the fact that yesterday she had fallen asleep in control and today she had woken up with out any sense at all at what her emotions were doing.

Derek stalked beside a sudden scowl on his own face, probably in retaliation against hers, but she didn't care. She turned her head slightly to the side, and not because the sight of him was making her heart race, but because she didn't feel like looking at him.

When they finally joined Numair and Daine it was to slammed trays and stony silence. Tori felt she slammed her tray much harder then Derek's and therefore was allowed her smug smile.

It quickly faded when she found Numair's eyes glued to her chest, again where her ring rested. Her hand flew to her chest and covered it hastily, her face paling until the only color in her face was her haunted emerald eyes. Her lower lip trembled and she viciously bit it with her teeth to hide the telling sign.

A stillness had settled between the four of them as Numair continued to stare and Tori continued to pray that he wasn't really seeing the ring, was merely looking at her chest. She knew that it couldn't really be what she hoped it was, but she didn't know how it could be anything else. There was no way he could see the ring… was there?

"That's an interesting necklace," Numair finally whispered, his voice slightly hoarse, as if he had undergone a great effort recently and was struggling to regain strength.

But the second the words left his mouth her entire body began shaking violently, deep tremors that were visible to whoever bothered to look. Derek looked, only because he could feel the tremors. She had leaned against him without knowing it and her shaking was making him shake in response.

He looked down at her small, innocent face and saw something he had never expected to see in her, ever. He saw grief and he saw stark terror. It shocked him… more then he could say. He had known that Torick was hiding something from him, but he had never realized how scared she truly was of whatever she was hiding.

"Boy?" he asked, turning more towards her, but she just slid against him. All the strength seemed to have left her and she sat and stared. Derek quickly shook her shoulder, but still, she did nothing. Her eyes had gone suddenly dull.

"What did you do?" he asked Numair, his voice suddenly fierce. He turned hard eyes on the mage, stony eyes that demanded answers. And Numair gave them. Or tried to give them.

"The necklace is—"

"How did you see it?" the chocked voice whispered out from Tori's swollen throat. The emotions that had risen had caught her off guard momentarily, but she had them under control now. And she had her senses back. "I think we should take a walk, mage. Just you and me."

Numair, about to protest, saw the look in the emerald eyes told him he'd get nothing unless she got her way. "Yes, a walk would be nice." He smiled and rose, dropping a casual hand on Daine's shoulder, squeezing it in reassurance then nodded to the door.

Tori rose and followed him out. Her knees were shaking but that didn't stop her. She couldn't allow Derek to know anything about the ring. He had likely seen in when Robert had been wearing it that first night she had met him at the tavern. She couldn't chance it.

When they were alone, she turned to Numair, her eyes accusing and angry. "How did you see it?"

"Torick… it's glowing like a beacon! How could I not see it?" Numair demanded, taken aback by the boy's anger. Numair had thought the boy would be happy that he had seen it. She had been making it glow, hadn't she?

"Glowing?" she shouted, her face once again going pale. She whirled away, muttering and rubbing at her forehead. She paced away then back then away again. When she wasa few feet away from him she stopped through up her hands and in a shout exclaimed, "I never asked for this! Why couldn't they have given me something normal?"

She mumbled some more, paced a few more feet and then came back too him, her face pale once more. "Always glowing?"

"No, only sometimes. Most the time it doesn't. But yesterday, and this morning it was glowing," Numair said, frowning at her chest again. It had shifted so it rested against the corset so it was glowing no longer.

"May I see what it is that is glowing?" Numair asked, and his eyes filled with an eagerness to explore. But she hesitated. She didn't know what he would find when he did look at it. Or if he would find anything. But if he did find something, would that lead her to her parents? And if she found her parents, would that bring her one step closer to finding the people who had killed Robert?

More then a little uncertain, she slowly drew the chain over her head and handed it to the mage. Immediately she felt cold, as if something was missing. She shivered and wrapped her arms around her stomach, cupping her elbows.

Numair made a humming noise in his throat and examined the ring closely for several minutes without making a comment. At one point he held his hand up to the jewel and when he did that, his eyebrows drew together in a frown, but other then that, he didn't react any other way.

By the time he gave it back to her, her lips were turning blue with cold and her hands were shaking. Numair frowned more at her, but she didn't notice because she was busy trying to get the necklace over her head.

When it had fallen to rest on her chest, she felt a rush of heat so strong, she gasped and stumbled back—

—_bringing her hand to her face to cover the stinging flesh where her mother had slapped her. She steadied herself against a chair and kept her face turned away, not trusting herself to keep the hatred from her eyes._

"_How could you do something like that?" the hysterical woman screamed. At times, she was ashamed to call her mother. "Do you have any idea what you have just done?"_

"_Of course mother," her voice was devoid of emotion, and for that she was blessed. The hatred that was capable of spilling into her voice would have burned. "I've started a war. One that rightly should have happened years ago."_

_She straightened with a wince. The wounds the man had given her had yet to heal, the ones between her legs the worst. But like the wounds on her frozen heart, they would heal._

"_I can't believe you!" still the woman screamed. But she had her beat. She was the one with the power. Everyone knew the wives were given nothing. It had been by her grace that her mother had been allowed to stay apart of the court at all. Now, now that she had the guts that she had been lacking before, she said what she had always wanted to say._

"_Mother I think it would be best if you left court. Now that I'm taking control, there just won't be any room for you. In fact, it'd be best if you left the city. I'll be starting the war negotiations soon and you wouldn't want to be around that. Yes… it's for the best. I'll send someone to help you pack and escort you from the city," with that, she turned and walked away, already dismissing her from her mind._

_For so long, she had suffered the torment of seeing her mother, the reminder of those horrid days when she had been younger. But now, now was her chance to get rid of the old baggage. She couldn't be happier.

* * *

_

Tori came back when she felt Numair's hands gripping her upper arms. Her feet weren't touching the ground. Her head hurt and she had the oddest thought that she had fainted.

"Are you alright?" he demanded, looking her in the eyes. He had lifted her up so they were eye level. She could see concern in his dark eyes. She nodded and lifted a hand to her head.

She had thought the visions had been answering her questions, but now it had only given her more to ask. What had happened between the mother and daughter to cause such hatred? And why did it seem that only the daughter felt it?

She wanted to go sit and think about it, but Numair was demanding answers from her. She struggled out of his grasp and dropped lightly to her feet. Her hand touched her head to stop it from spinning and when it had, she looked up at Numair.

"Okay, start over. What do you want to know?" she whispered. Suddenly, she didn't feel so wrong about telling him. She needed to tell someone, and she felt that, though he was a mage, maybe she could trust him. He was a mage, and maybe he knew what was happening to her.

"What was that?" he asked her, his eyes intense. And was that… concern? She was ready to tell him.

"Will you keep my secrets?" she asked, her voice small. Numair nodded. "All of them? Even if I broke laws?"

"What kind of laws?" Numair demanded, but she was shaking her head.

"You have to promise me first," she whispered.

"Alright, I'll keep your secrets. Now tell me. What was that?" she looked around and found a bench and lead him over to it. This would take a while, she knew and she wasn't inclined to stand around telling him the whole story. She'd much rather sit.

"That was a vision, Numair," well, just because she was willing to tell him didn't mean she would give it all up voluntarily. He'd have to ask her what he wanted to know. And if he happened to forget something, she wasn't going to tell him.

"What kind of a vision?"

"One between a mother and a daughter. I don't know who the daughter is, but she looks like me. And I don't know anything about the mother. I've never seen her face. But I do know that the daughter intensely dislikes the mother. I think it had something to do with her father, who she hates even more," she shrugged when she was finished.

"How many of these 'visions' have you had?"

"Hundreds. I have at least one a night. And sometimes I have them during the day. That used to be rare, having them during the day, but now they're happening more often," she turned towards him to find him gazing at her once more with those eyes that were eager to learn more.

"Are they always of the same thing?"

"No. They all have the same person in it, the girl, but they're always different. Sometimes the visions have parts of ones that I have seen before, but then they go farther, expanding."

"What are they about?"

"Mostly, they're about the girl. Just little clips of conversation between her and her people. Nothing spectacular, but there's a mystery to it."

"When did these visions start happening?"

There she hesitated. What could she say? They had started when she had picked up the sword, but somehow she knew that they had only been waiting for her to pick up the sword to start. The sword had opened the floodgates, but they had always been there.

Before she could answer though, Derek came bursting out of the door to the mess hall. "Torick! Get ready. Bandits have attacked a village nearby and taken hostages! We're riding out to get them!"

A/N Well... there it was. Yep yep, the latest chapter. What do you think? Do you think Numair will catch on that she's haveing visions of a girl that looks like her when supposedly she's a boy? Hehe... guess you'll just have to wait to find out! Review me!

Nubia


	13. Chapter Twelve

A/N Yes... I am indeed updateing again. lol. I know what you're thinking. Twice in one weekend? Yep! It's true. I've just been on a brainstorm! Plus, I've had these scenes in my since almost the beginning so I'm enjoying finally being able to write them all out. I hope you enjoy reading them also. Now, thanks to:

Dana: Hehe... funny you should mention that.

Warrior of Tortall: Yes it was indeed.

...: You never know. He just might wink Of course, I could be lying.

Fyr's Shadow: You think she's crazy too? Hmmm... never suspected that. lol.

Wingedrider: Thanks!

Zerrin of the Wind:I suppose a boy could resemble a girl. But Tori did say she looked just like her. So... yeah. Thanks for reading and I'm glad that you enjoy Avenger also.

Mage Light: I'm glad thatI have made this story so well. lol. And I'm also glad that you liked it so much. And not the puppy eyes! They always get me. lol.

cloverlcuk 11: I'm so glad that you like it!

Chapter Twelve:

Tori barely had any time to think as she was hurriedly pushed into heavy, bulky armor and a bow was shoved at her along with a quiver of arrows. She grabbed Wildfire's reigns and hardly had time to secure her bag of rocks onto her belt before Derek was calling them all into assembly.

He was giving every one in the squad a position. There were ten at most, but Derek was taking along the refugees who had seen battle before and knew how to fight. Along with Neal, Numair, Daine and Kel, there were enough people for them to take down the bandits.

"From what we gathered, the leader of the bandits is highly skilled with the sword and from the evidence of how many people were killed, these people are ruthless. Now, here's a map of the area where they've built a temporary fortress."

Trees surrounded the area but that only lasted about a mile before it hit a ravine with a river running through it. They had information that said there was a path that lead down the side of the ravine. Derek had scent a runner down to check if it was true and he had returned with news that not only was it true, but the path lead through the woods up to the clearing where they had built the fortress. If any one had any inclination of escaping, which most of them would, that would be the way they would be going out.

Derek however confident he was that the battle would be over before anyone got the chance to escape still felt the need to put someone on the path as guard. He picked the young man who had been entirely new to the Own like she had been.

She looked at him and immediately saw sweat bead along his upper lip. His face paled to a horrible shade of gray and she knew something was wrong. He looked up and his blue eyes had pleads in them. He couldn't have been more obvious in his seek for help. With an inward sigh she nodded to him and told him with her eyes that she would help.

"Torick, you'll be with me. Any questions? Good… lets move out in five minutes!" Derek turned to go gather his horse and Tori strode towards the young man.

"What is it?" she asked him, hiding the irritation in her voice. Now that she was close up to him, she could see that he was really very frightened.

"I can't take the ravine path!" he stammered, his voice low, looking around to see that no one was listening.

"Why not?" she demanded. When he refused to answer, she turned to walk away but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back to face him. He stared at her for a moment more and would have staid quiet she knew. "Tell me or I won't help you."

"I'm scared of heights," he whispered and immediately colored in shame.

"Is that all?" she asked and he nodded.

"Okay, look. I'll take your place and you take mine. I wasn't paying attention anyways so I don't know where I'm at and therefore I can't be disappointed. Okay?"

"But I can't do that!" he nearly shouted and Tori was thoroughly exasperated.

"Why not?" she demanded again, resisting the urge to stamp her foot in impatience. Really it would have been easier to simply leave him to it.

"It'd be going against the commander's orders," he whispered again.

"Look, I'm sure Derek would rather us disobey orders then have you on the path when you're afraid of heights. Now, go mount up and don't mention this to anyone. When the battle starts and Derek asks you where I am, tell him I asked for the switch, not you, got that?" he nodded, his eyes wide. But she knew that he would follow orders.

Problem solved, she hurried over to her horse and mounted up. Within moments they were heading out. It would take them less then an hour to reach the area and then she would be on her own out at the ravine. It would be her first real battle, yet it would be exactly the same as the surprise attack that had happened less then a week ago.

She wondered if it would be as easy as that first fight. It seemed so long ago that it had happened. So many things had happened since then that it seemed almost a year had passed. But then, that's how her life had been feeling like for the longest time. So many things had happened! It seemed years and not a matter of mere months since Robert had died and her world had been turned upside down.

She felt as if her life was passing her by and she didn't have time to stop and enjoy it. So much had already slipped past her. She wished so badly that she could go back to the girl that she had been just a short time ago. But if she were able to go back to that, would she be content? She was certain that she wasn't the same person that she had been when Robert was still with her, but had she changed that much?

Could she settle down and be a nanny once more now that she had had a taste of a soldier's life? Could she allow herself to be just a nanny when she had helped people? Could she live with herself once all this was over, knowing she had taken lives?

If Robert was still alive, she wondered if he would even recognize her.

Quickly, she forced the thoughts from her mind and concentrated on thinking about the coming battle. She would need to be prepared for it. Very prepared.

She went over a mental checklist of everything that she had in her saddlebags. She knew she had rope and she would use that to anchor her to a tree or something. In case there was a battle, which she highly doubted because she had full faith that Derek would take care of everything, she didn't want to roll of the side into the ravine.

But she did have the rocks. She could throw the home rock over the side and incase she did fall, she could use the field rock to take her to safety. It sounded like a wonderful plan to her and would be very useful if she had need of it. But really, she was certain she wouldn't need it and would therefore spend her time on the cliff thinking. There was much that she could think about. For instance the vision that she had had just that morning.

When the partial army reached the clearing and began setting up for attack, Tori took her horse off into the woods and down the path. She quickly reached the little open space on the cliff edge that led to the path. She dismounted and tied her horse several feet up into the edge of the woods, easily accessible to her, but not from any other angle. Then she gently walked to the edge of the path and looked over.

She could see it winding its way down the side of the cliff in sharp switchbacks. Even if a bandit happened upon her, made it past her and down onto the path, it would be easy for her to shoot him with her arrows. But only from this angle. Any other angle and she wouldn't be able to see him.

The farther out onto the ledge she walked, the harder it was to see the path. The underside of the ledge had eroded away, so really the path was curved under the ledge. As was the river below. If she were to fall from the ledge at the point that she was standing, she would land in the water.

A sudden rustle in the bushes leading onto the ledge startled her away from her viewings. She swung around, her hand automatically reaching to draw her sword. The dappled gray pony broke onto the ledge, the small figure on it's back shocked to find her sword pointed at its face.

"Jon!" Tori's eyes widened in disbelief as she hurriedly sheathed her sword. She helped him down from the pony, still too shocked to scold and led the pony over to where she had her own horse was tied.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she took out the rope from her saddlebags. She would tie herself to a tree, but she would have to have Jon hide out in the trees. She couldn't send him back to their camp by himself because the fight had likely started and he would be in danger and she couldn't ride back with him because she wasn't supposed to abandon her post.

"I wanted to see the fight. I thought you were going to sneak into the back, but now that I see you're only a lookout, I'll head back. I'm sure I can make it into the fortress now that Derek has the gates open," He turned to head back into the forest for his pony but she stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"Sorry Jon, but you'll have to stay with me now," she gave him a soft smile and saw the determination in his eyes. He would leave the first chance he got, but she had a way of getting him to stay. "Besides, Derek assured me that someone's coming this way that we'll have to fight. You wouldn't want to miss your first chance at a true fight, would you?"

She didn't even want to think what Jon's father would say if he heard what she had just said. It was likely that Jon had left without permission, again, but there was nothing she could do for it. She saw the light glitter in his eyes and knew that he was pleased with that promise. She smiled and gestured him closer.

"Here's the plan. I'll stay out here in the open and when they come down the path, they'll head towards me. You, who'll be hiding in the trees, can ambush him when I call for help. How does that sound?" she saw him pout and added a little bit of bribery to the plan. "If you do good, I'll think about teaching you that move I used."

He sulked but in the end he entered the trees. She smiled encouragement at him and went to tie herself to a tree. The rope was fairly long and she was able to reach all parts of the clearing. If she happened to fall, which she highly doubted as no one was going to come this way, she would fall a fairly long ways before the rope caught.

She did consider tying the rope around her leg instead of her middle, but it would be more likely to trip her feet if it was connected to them. So she left it around her middle. She only hopped that it didn't make her feminine hips more noticeable. Any man with half a brain who looked would probably see them, but she was willing to take the chance.

As a final precaution, she dropped the home rock off the side of the ledge and prayed it landed on solid ground. She would have to go down there to get it later and then climb up the switchback trail, but she was willing to if it meant she didn't die from the fall.

Once everything was set up, she became rather bored and sat on the edge of the ledge, her sword out on her lap, lightly gripped in her hands. She examined it carefully, seeing the emerald jewel in the hilt. Was it just the sun reflecting on it, or was it glowing faintly?

She wasn't certain and she truly didn't want to think about it any more. Her thoughts of the woman in her dreams had monopolized her mind for so long it worried her that maybe she was becoming obsessed with the woman. She was willing to let it go, but it seemed the woman wasn't willing to let _her _go.

She frowned and tried her hardest to push away thoughts of the woman. It couldn't be healthy for her to think about it all the time. But with the absence of the woman to fill her thoughts, they turned to her complicated feelings of Derek. What had this morning been all about? Why had her heart raced when she looked at him? Why had she wanted to look at him?

Did… did she find him attractive? She gapped at the thought. Never in her life had she ever found a man attractive. Sure, she had seen hundreds of beautiful men, Robert one of them, but she had never been attracted to them. But Derek was so different. He was just… so mysterious to her.

She knew that sometimes he watched her. And when she looked at him, sometimes he had a mysterious look in his eyes. Sometimes, she had almost thought the looks had been soft, but she was certain that wasn't it. And this morning, he had been hurt by what she had said. If he had thought of her as simply a soldier, he wouldn't have been hurt. Did that mean that he also had feelings for her? And if he did, did she have reason to worry? Was he attracted to her even though she looked like a boy? Or was it something else. Did he see her as only a friend, in a brotherly fashion?

She fervently hoped that it was a brotherly affection. Otherwise, she would have a great cause to worry.

Again, rustling on the path startled her from her thoughts. She pushed them all away and leapt to her feet, ready to meet the bandit that would face her. She got into her defensive stance and waited.

When the man did indeed enter the clearing, she was startled by what she saw. He didn't look at all like a bandit. He was dressed in rich clothes that couldn't possibly belong to a bandit. She knew that he hadn't stolen them, for the look on his face and in his gray eyes suggested that he was a man used to power, a noble's look.

She was about to step aside to let him pass when he drew his own sword. It fit easily in his hand and she was startled to realize that he was, in fact, the leader of the bandits. He had escaped Derek and now he was here to take her out.

He lunged at her, ready to strike and she moved to do as she had always done, to push aside his sword and cut up through his mid-section. But the force of the blow surprised her and had her staggering back. Her teeth clenched as she mustered the strength to turn the sword aside, but she didn't have the speed to swing it up.

Instead, as she was swinging up, he brought his sword back and struck her down again. Again the force amazed her, it was so strong. It pushed her back until she was on her knees before him, struggling to get out from under the force. He lifted his sword and she tried to get up, but he struck again and with her halfway to her feet, it knocked her clear to the ground on her back.

His sword was inches from her face when she pushed up. But it was no use. In but a mere minute, she would lose all strength in her arms and he would kill her. In desperation, she rolled, bringing the hilt of her sword up and the tip down. It surprised the man, and he also lost balance, as his sword slid of hers and its tip dug into the ground, slicing part way into her rope, a mere inch from were Tori's head had been.

Seeing her chance, she jumped to her feet and swung down at him. But he managed to pull his sword free and block it. He pushed up and with pathetic ease had her stalking back. He struck again, but instead of killing her, he knocked her off balance onto her back again and started off at a run for the ravine path.

She cursed, scrambled to her feet and grabbed her bow and an arrow where she had left them on the ground. She swung the bow up and got the arrow in, but as she sighted on the man's back, she couldn't find the strength in her arms to pull back the arrow. Her arms were shaking and her shoulder muscles were cramping.

He had done it on purpose. He had known that her arms were weaker then his and he had deliberately weakened them so she couldn't do what she had just tried to do. He was sneaky bastard, she had to admit. And as she did, she felt a smile tug at her lips.

She replayed his strategy in her mind as she turned to drop her bow and arrow on the ground, dropping herself beside them. And something became clear to her. She had seen his fighting style before, a lot less refined then his had been, but nonetheless, the same. But where?

She looked back down the path trying to find the man, but he was gone. She frowned puzzling over it, but before she really had time to contemplate, she heard more clattering coming down the trail.

She spun, lifting her sword though she knew it was all but useless, her arms were so tired. But she wouldn't go down without a fight. As she turned to meet the person, he tried to jump her, take her by surprise, but she managed to push his sword out of the way and jab up furiously. She sliced through him about halfway before the muscles in her arm gave on her and she had to pull back down.

The man staggered, gagging with the pain and fell to his knees. He clutched at his rent midsection and began to scream. A terrible, horrible sound that made her want to whimper. Instead, she sliced her sword across his throat and sunk to the ground beside him, fighting back tears.

The blood was seeping into the pants at her knees, but she couldn't make herself care. She stared down at his dead face and gagged herself. But she managed to hold it back. She was exhausted now, physically and emotionally. Killing people stressed her nerves so very much.

She staggered to her feet when she heard yet another person on the path. She didn't think she could manage to fight another person. But to her great relief it was Derek and the rest of the squad. The fight must be over.

"You got him, Boy!" Derek came to her and gave her a hefty punch on her shoulder making her wince with pain. Had she mentioned yet that her shoulders hurt also? The others were crowding around her, giving her congratulatory pats on the back. She smiled at them, that funny little tug at the corner of her lips, and tried to explain to them that she wasn't really in need of congratulations. Hadn't she let the first man by? The man that had the exceptional sword skill?

Jon, not to be left out, came running up to the growing crowd, trying to get attention. He did, quite on accident, startle one of the soldiers who swung about, his big hand knocking into Jon's head and sending him staggering backwards, as Tori watched. He would have been all right, that was of course, if he had had ground to stagger back on. Instead, his little feet carried him right off the edge of the ledge.

With a frightened shout, she pushed through the crowd and jumped off the ledge after him, not before Derek jumped also. Only, Derek didn't have a rope secured around his waist like she did.

In a panicked move, she wrapped her right arm around Derek's waist as they sped down the side of the cliff. With their combined weight, wasn't it logical that they would fall faster? Whatever was logical or not, they reached Jon and Derek gripped his skinny arm, even as the rope caught on the ledge. She heard a sound close to a tear in cloth even as she felt the rope tighten around her, biting into her flesh. She felt a rib or two crack.

Only, during the fight, when she had drove the enemy's sword into the dirt by her head, the tip of the sword had sliced partway through the rope. When the rope caught on the ledge, she felt the rope snap into her stomach, crushing her ribs and knocking them into the side of the cliff. Derek's head hit the side and he fell unconscious, slipping from her grip and loosening his hold on Jon. She frantically wrapped her legs around Derek, under his shoulders even as she was clutching Jon towards her mid section.

But the rope was fraying. She could feel it give more each second. With a panicked thought, she scrambled through the bag at her hip until she found the field rock and gripped it in her hand, shouting at the top of her lungs, "Sheshmaru!" just as the rope snapped and they begun a free-fall down into the water.

In a blink she felt them dropping into the water, the home rock secure in her hand. With Jon under one arm and her arm under Derek's shoulders with fast maneuvering, she pulled them to the surface, each gasping for breath. Derek was still unconscious, but she saw that he had managed to stay breathing.

Jon scrambled onto her back, clinging to her like a monkey as she clung to Derek, keeping him afloat even as she struggled to keep her and Jon afloat. She could hear Jon sobbing with fright as she kicked her legs and free arm frantically, heading for shore.

It took some time with her exhausted arms, and she had swallowed more water then was healthy when she managed to pull all three to shore. Jon scrambled up out of the water once he was able to get purchase with his feet, but Tori had to drag Derek up to land by herself, her aching arms making her whimper.

By this time, they had passed the ravine and were several miles away from where they had entered the water. The current in the river had been strong and had taken them far. She was just glad that they had made it to cover, a forest. If the man that had escaped happened upon them, none of them were strong enough to fight them off, not with her tired shoulders and arms and Derek unconscious. No, in the forest they would be safe.

She was panting when she sat hard on the ground. Her ribs hurt, terribly. But first, she had to worry about Derek and Jon. She knelt beside the unconscious figure, even as she called out to Jon, "Jon, are you hurt?"

She examined Derek's head carefully and saw the slight gash on the side, a knot forming. But other then that, he seemed unharmed. Jon still hadn't answered her and she was about to yell at him when she saw a yellow thing washing up on shore. She found it odd to be there, but as she looked closer, she knew what it was.

It was her blond wig.

A/N hehe... yep... that was indeed the end of the chapter. Do you hate me yet? Cause I have been extremely evil in my cliff hangers. lol. Welp, hope you enjoyed it! Review me!

Nubia


	14. Chapter Thirteen

A/N I swear, this summer thing is really good for my imagination. I've been on constant type for days now. I can't seem to get my mind to stop working. It's really interferring with my sleep habits. lol.Well... here we are. The next chappie. Thanks to...

demeanted-dreamer: Yes... much chance for fluff. I love fluff. Thinking of writing a story of pure fluff after this story is finished.

Fyr's Shadow: Well... I updated. But I think I left off at a cliffie again. lol. Not sure.

cherryfaerie: Glad you're still reading. You've been here since the beginng. Much appreciations to you!

A Dragon's Rose: New reader! yay! Glad you like it.

...: Sorry, trying to stop the cliffie's. I hate them myself, but asI writer, you have to see the appeal of them. It keeps ther reader's hooked in, right? lol. Well... yeah... thanks for reading.

Wingedrider: Read and find out, my dear.

warrior of tortall: I'm glad you think this is the most amazing story.

Zerrion: So many questions! lol. Okay... I'll answer what I can. The man that Tori fought, the first one, will be important later, but until then, that's all I can say. And no, she hasn't fought him before. But that's saying more then I wanted to. But I'll give you that. Thanks for reading!

cloverluck11: okay!

Chapter Thirteen:

With a strangled sound, she reached up and felt the hair that was flowing down her back. She had worn her hair down for so many years she hadn't registered the feel of it against her back, hadn't noticed that she no longer wore her concealing wig.

She turned to Jon and saw him staring at her in awe even as his eyes fell to her chest. The corset, she thought, looking down also. Obviously something had happened to it, for it was clearly visible that no longer did she have the appearance of a boyish figure, but that of the woman she truly was.

She vaguely remembered the sound of cloth that she had heard ripping and realized it must have been the corset. She was only thankful that Derek was unconscious and couldn't see her.

"I can explain," she told Jon even as she bent to retrieve the wig from the water. Still Jon made no sound. She turned to look at him once more, but his gaze was still fixed on her now very apparent breasts. She crossed her arms over them and glared at him. That seemed to bring him out of his stupor.

"You just saved my life," he whispered faintly, his voice beginning to take on color, and the color was that of disgust. "I was saved by a girl! How will I ever live this down?"

She couldn't help it, she laughed, her deep, tinkling, girly laugh. Jon seemed mesmerized by it. She blushed, not sure why it would matter that a little boy seemed to find her mesmerizing.

"Listen Jon, I really can explain," she whispered to him, but he shook his head.

"I understand. You're just like the Lioness right? You wanted to be a warrior but you knew how hard it was for girls, didn't you? So you just decided to do it the easy way and dress like a boy, right?"

She thought about explaining all the complicated things that had actually brought about her dressing like a boy, but looked at his face instead. He was excited by the thought of her doing something devious to be a warrior. "Something like that, yes."

"That is the neatest thing I've ever heard!" he exclaimed, running to her and demanding of her thousands of questions. She laughed again.

"But Jon, this has to be a secret. No one can know that I'm a woman. If they did, they'd take away my chance at being a warrior. You wouldn't want that would you?" she whispered, her eyes taking on a faint puppy dog look. Jon shook his head vehemently.

"I'll keep your secrets. You can count on me!" She smiled and because she couldn't help it, she hugged him close to her, squishing his face against her breasts as she kissed his head, much as she had done to Robert's little sisters.

When she let him go, it was to see his face bright with a blush. She laughed once more and realized that this was the most she had laughed in the longest time.

"Come lets set up camp. Derek needs to be kept warm if he's to ever wake up," she smiled and set about getting a camp made.

* * *

After Jon had fallen asleep by the campfire late that night, Tori set about to mending her corset. Upon examination, she found that it wasn't broken, as she had suspected. The laces had been ripped open by the rope that had still been knotted around her waist was all. And when the laces had come loose, it had slid down, thus allowing Jon the show that he saw. She quickly did up the laces once more and then pinned her wig back in place.

She had to say though, she didn't feel as if her secret was doomed now. Jon respected her greatly, even more now that he knew she was a woman. He had fallen in love with the daring of her "story". If he knew the truth, he probably would have loved it more, but she couldn't afford to tell him the truth.

She sighed, looking at the man sleeping close to the fire. Derek still hadn't awoken from his fall and she was beginning to worry. But she was certain when he woke in the morning he would be fine. She had to believe it. With a deep breath, she lay down close to him, incase he needed her in the night of course, and drifted to sleep

* * *

_She sighed, gathering the newest bouquet of roses into her arms. She really must tell him to stop giving these to her. She realized, that though she did love him, it wasn't really a passionate love. Over the many months that she had spent time with him, she had realized he had become more of a father figure to her, then a lover._

_He was just so much older then her. More her mother's age. And though she did enjoy the flattery, it didn't help with her image. She would give him back the flowers and tell him that it had to stop. She was certain it would be for the best of all of them._

_She didn't bother to knock on his chamber door, it was her palace after all. But when she looked upon the sight in his room, she wished she had. The roses fell gently to the floor even as she crushed those that her hands could reach in her tightened fists._

_There, in the middle of his room, stood him, the man that she thought had loved her, and her mother, locked in an embrace of passion. All she could see of her mother was his tanned hand tangled in her glorious blond hair. A strangled sound of frustration escaped her throat even as she slammed from the room._

"_Lee!" the man, she couldn't bare to think of his name it would hurt too much, called after her as she stormed down the hall. "Wait!"_

_She whipped around, her beautiful features carved in stone. "You, soldier, are to address me as Commander or Your Excellency, is that understood?"_

"_But Lee—" he tried to reason, but she would have none of it. She should have known, she thought as she gave him a look that had others begging for forgiveness. "I'm sorry, Your Excellency. I won't slip up again."_

_She nodded and swept down the corridor, already planning how she would be able to escape to her cove for an hour or two to get over this betrayal. She should have known that her mother would steal him from her. Hadn't she tried to take everything else?_

_Her fists clenched once more as her feet slammed into the ground. Her jaw was clenched so tight her teeth were squeaking. But she didn't care. It didn't matter that her mother had betrayed her, that the man she had thought loved her had betrayed her. She was used to it. And if she wasn't used to it, she should be now. After all, wasn't her life filled with it? Unbidden to her came the memory that had shattered her world nearly twelve years before._

The little girl, cute with her hair up in braids, a chocolate smear on the corner of her mouth, skipped to the door of the library to peak in. After her chocolate cookie, she got it because she had been able to play the music piece that her teacher had had her memorize, she wanted to sit in the library and read.

At seven, she still had hopes that if she were smart enough, maybe her mother would smile at her. Maybe… maybe even give her a pat on the head. Just one pat. She knew that two pats were out of the question, and a hug impossible, but she would settle for a pat. A pat meant that her mother would see her. Marian, her nurse, had told her once, when she had been reading her a bed time story, that mother's loved smart children, funny children, who were always on their best behavior and never were bad.

Upon hearing that, she had decided that she would do her best to be that kind of child. Then her mother would love her. That's why she wanted to read more today. Marian had told her that reading made a person smart. Marian had also said that she loved her, but it wasn't the same to Lee. She wanted everyone to love her. But not just everyone, her mother in particular.

When she reached the library door, she stopped. She could hear voices talking in a hushed tones. Naturally curious, she stopped to listen. Soon, though, she would wish she hadn't.

"The little Princess played wonderfully today, your highness," That was Marian's voice. Lee could always pick it out. It was quivery and old sounding, even though she knew that Marian wasn't much older then thirty.

"Does it appear to you, servant, that I care? Haven't I told you she's beneath my notice?" Lee cringed. That was her mother. Her mother was always sounding like that, cranky and nasty and mean. She only needed to smile. Just once, and she would feel better. Not like how she smiled at parties, that was a fake smile. Lee was the one that was going to make her smile once more, a real smile.

"No your highness. It doesn't appear that way. Not to me and not to that little child, that innocent little child," Marian whispered. Lee knew that voice, new it for what it was. Marian was struggling against harsh words. What was this? But then she understood.

"Innocent?" her mother screeched, her voice loud and hysterical. "That child isn't innocent! She bears the sins of her father! Her murderous bastard of a father! The man that raped me! That forced me to have that wretched thing that you dare to call mine! I would as soon claim that child, that demon, as mine as I would welcome my husband into my bed! Just the sight of her makes me sick. I can't stand how everyone worships the ground she walks on! She's a monster, fathered by a monster! And she is nothing to me! She should be nothing to everyone! That's what she deserves and that's what she will get!"

Lee heard her mother stalking to the door, but she couldn't make herself move. Her small legs had been frozen in place, her feet rooted to the ground by the feeling that was welling inside her as fast as the tears were welling in her eyes.

And those tear filled eyes stared up at the watery image of the woman who she had worshiped since she was little, the woman who she had tried so hard to please. The woman who thought she was nothing.

Her mother stared down at her for a second, and Lee could read the utter disgust in her gray eyes. "You may bear my blood and my name, but you are not mine. You are nothing. Get out of my sight!" the words seethed from her.

But Lee could do nothing, she was still frozen. With pain. "I said get out of my sight!" She screamed it that time, and struck Lee across the face, knocking her back. Her mother didn't even bother to see if she was all right before she strode down the hall, her blond hair flying back behind her as she left.

_She shook the memory from her, and relaxed her clenched fists. It meant nothing to her. She had hardened herself against these kinds of thoughts, these memories. She didn't need them, didn't need a mother. She didn't need anything. Or anyone._

"_Lee!" she spun and faced the man running towards her. It was too late for her to escape the confrontation now, and she had left her rocks back in her room with her sword. She would take to carrying those around from now on, she decided, though she knew she needed no protection within the palace walls. Her city was safe. But was her heart?_

"_Soldier? Is that they way you address your commanding officer?" she demanded, her face and eyes shuttering her true feelings. This man had lost his privilege of seeing into her when he had kissed her mother. He had severed all bonds when he had betrayed her. Soon, she would see that he was shipped out to the front line. He was worthless as a fighter, but it was the punishment he deserved after the things he had done to her._

"_Lee don't do this. Don't shut me out like this," he was panicked, she could hear it in his voice._

"_I? Shut you out?" she gave him a belittling smile and shrugged carelessly. "Why should a mere soldier be allowed to see the true me? After all, you are just a common soldier, unworthy of what I have given you."_

_She saw the anger rise and was glad of it. Maybe it would hurt. Even a small hurt would satisfy her. Revenge was something she believed fully. After all, wasn't this war she had created based on revenge also?_

"_I think it best you return to the bunkhouse, soldier. The nobles won't want to be hindered by your commoner's presence."_

"_Lee," his voice was a chocked whisper. Ah, yes. He was hurting now. But before she could turn to leave, he grabbed her arms and pulled her back to him. "Why are you doing this to me?"_

"_To you? You think you hurt? How do you think I felt when I saw you kissing my mother you bastard!" she shrieked it, right in his face, so angry she couldn't hold it back, couldn't gain control. Never, not since that night, had she ever been this out of control. She had always iced her emotions back over so fast. But not this time. Not him._

_She had finally allowed someone into her heart, finally given her love, even if it was only the love she would give to a father, and he had betrayed her like this. How could she not react?_

"_I trusted you! I thought you were on my side! I loved you like a father! And I thought you loved me like your daughter! How could you do this to me? How?" she was beating at his chest, and she knew it hurt. She was no weak female. But he wasn't making a sound, only staring down at her._

"_What's so wrong with me loving both of you? Why can't I have you both? You, you're like a daughter to me Lee. You know I love you. And your mother…she's… I love her also. I want to marry her Lee. Then you would bemy daughter, for real!What's so wrong with that?"_

"_How can you say that? How can you love her? How can you love that cold-hearted bitch? Do you even now what she is? She's a cold bitch who only thinks of herself!" she spat it out at him, and saw that what she had said cut deep. His eyes hardened as his hands tightened around her upper arms, bruising._

"_You won't speak of her that way, Lee. Not about the woman I love or about your mother," he gave her a shake, sending her teeth knocking together. But it did anything but give her sense. It only made her want to scream louder. But she couldn't. The way to win was never through outbursts but through calm control. With a deep breath she summoned the ice._

"_I don't have a mother, soldier," her voice was icy cold, dead. She had regained control once more. She knew now that nothing she said would change his mind. She only wanted away from him so she could lick her wounds in private. "She disowned me long ago." With that she wrenched free. Or tried to._

"_What do you mean Lee? What's this about disowning you?" he asked, staring deep into her eyes. She no longer had the strength to shutter them and he saw the truth. "When was this?"_

"_Before my husband died. I think… she was seven," her voice floated like music and settled around them, calming him, but only making her angrier._

"_I'm surprised you took notice of my age mother. After all, didn't you yourself claim I was beneath your notice?"

* * *

_

"Boy!" the shout had her eye's flying open, reaching for the sword clasped to her waist, her eyes searching everywhere around her. She took note of Jon sleeping soundly across the dieing flames before they rested on the green-brown eyes glittering at her from mere inches away.

"Boy, you're laying on my arm," now that she was fully awake, she took note of where she was and realized she was indeed laying on Derek's arm. And his leg. And his side. Basically, she had plastered herself to him, throwing her leg over his hips.

She blushed to the roots of her hair and scrambled away. It wasn't her fault really, she thought as she tried to control her embarrassment. It had been cold in the night, and her cloths had still been partially wet. She had only been seeking out warmth.

"I'm sorry," she stammered, wringing her hands in her lap. She scowled when Derek laughed. "I don't find it at all funny, sir."

He only laughed harder and tried to stand. A cry of pain and surprise tore from his throat when he moved his left leg. He gasped, sitting up and reaching for the offending leg.

But Tori was already there, slapping away his hands and feeling up along its length. About half way up his leg, she found the break. She knew it was bad, really bad. She frowned worriedly up at him, not sure what to do. She had never fixed a broken leg before. An arm yes, but a leg was different. And when she had fixed the arm, all she had really down was hold the girls uninjured hand while the girl's brother had fixed it.

Other then that, she'd never been around broken bones before. What really worried her though, was the fact that Derek was basically immovable with a broken leg. She had to do something, she knew they couldn't stay there. They had to move to be found, get back to the main rode. And they had to get there soon so they could get his leg fixed. And her ribs.

She remembered her ribs now. Now that they were screaming at her. In fact, it seemed that the only one who had been undamaged in the fall was Jon, how very ironic, seeing how they had jumped off to save him. But she had to get them to a town before something worse happened.

"Do you know what to do for my leg?" Derek asked her, but he knew the answer. He could see the panic forming on her features even as she stared down at his leg. "I'll walk you through it. Now, I want you to go get some sturdy branches okay? While you're doing that, I'll cut strips to use as bindings from you shirt."

He saw her freeze at the sound of that. And he frowned wondering at it. Why should she be upset about taking off her shirt? It wasn't like they weren't all guys.

"Your shirt is bigger, we should cut yours," she offered hurriedly, almost slipping over her words in her haste to save her own skin. Before he could counter act her suggestion, she scurried into the trees and began searching for logs. She was frustrated when she found her hands weren't quite steady.

It was stupid… there hadn't been any chance at all that Derek would have found out in that moment. She was just being paranoid. That was really all there was too it. She had escaped smooth as glass and he would think nothing of it. Right?

A/N Welp... that was that. One quick reminder. When Derek is talking of Tori or thinking of her, I used feminine pronouns, but he still doesn't know. Got that? kk. And also, that was a flashback within a vision. Okay? If you have any questions, just ask. Review me!

Nubia


	15. Chapter Fourteen

A/N Sorry guys! I meant to update before I left for my dad's but the chapter just wasn't finished yet. So, here you go, hope you enjoy it. Thanks too...

Sammey: Maybe, maybe not. Haven't gotten that far yet

Twist 130: Glad you're reading and that you like it.

demented-dreamer: hugs teddy bear I didn't drink any coffee but am now officailly out of hot cocoa. And just for you, I have the next chapter all done also.

cylobaby: lol. Worried? Would I ever steer you wrong?

...: Yeah... you'll get a little more of an insight into what Derek is thinking in this chapter. I'm pretty sure anyways. And yes... poor Lee. But it gets worse.

Fyr's Shadow: Yeah... I feel really bad for the soldier also. I was sad when I did that stuff to him, especially cause I know who he is. lol. You'll understand soon enough what I mean by that.

Zerrin: Yeah... it was funny. And poor Derek. But it'll work out.

cloverluck11: Glad you liked his reaction. It was a toughie.

warrior of tortall: Yes, he is suspecting, but he kinda lets it slide for a while.

Mage Light: I'm so very glad that you love it.

Chapter Fourteen:

Tori lurched forward a final step before her legs gave out from under her and she fell to the ground. Jon, hearing the thump came back to her, cooing and trying to get her to rise. But she couldn't. Dragging Derek behind her on a bed of leaves and sticks had been her greatest, and only, idea on getting them to safety. She just hadn't comprehended how much it would hurt to pull him along.

She had built up some muscles working with Derek and his squad over the months, but certainly not enough to drag him for long periods of time. She had gone as far she could today, but sadly, it hadn't truly been all that far. Before Derek had passed out with pain, the process of fixing his leg temporarily had been excruciating on him, he had told her that a road ran parallel with the river. The only problem being it was several miles walk to the road. And with her ribs aching and Derek's dead weight, it was no easy going.

Jon wasn't faring any better. She had thought he was the one that had gotten off easy with no injuries, but during the night, while they had been sleeping, he had taken a cold. Now, he was feeling as crappy as the rest of them. And here he was trying to comfort her.

She supposed it was selfish of her not to tell him that she was hurt, but she didn't want to add to his worries. He was scared spit-less that he had permanently damaged Derek when he had jumped off the cliff to save Jon. If she told him that she had been hurt too, he would break down completely. But it was getting harder and harder to ignore. And having the rope tied around her waist wasn't helping either. But where else could they put it really?

"Jon… we have … to stop," she gasped, giving up completely and laying down, stretching out beside her unconscious commander. Jon's eyes filled up with wet tears as he stared down at her. She knew she looked sickly. How could she not? But she had to reassure him. There was no way she could drag him too.

"Don't worry Jon. We made good time today. Come, lie down beside me and we'll sleep," she patted the space beside her and scooted over more so he would be between her and Derek. He would have more warmth that way, with Derek at his back.

Jon cuddled close to her, his arms folded over his chest, using her chest as a pillow. His nose pressed up close to her neck. She wrapped one arm across his stomach and Derek's, the other under her head and threw her leg across him and over Derek's hips. She wanted to spread her warmth out to both of them. She couldn't afford either one of them to be sick, Jon sicker then he already was.

It wasn't long before she felt Jon relaxing into sleep. With a murmured sigh, she kissed the top of his small head and tucked her head in close to his, her own eyes drifting closed, the pain numbing in her abdomen.

For once, she didn't dream. Exhaustion saved her from that. But when she woke in the morning she felt as if she hadn't slept at all. She could feel her toes freezing in their shoes and worse yet, it had begun to rain during the night, covering them all in light dew. She was shivering, even though Jon was keeping half of her warm. Because of her exhaustion, she had been susceptible to the drop in temperature and now she was getting a cold also.

She felt a tickle in her nose and let out a tiny little sneeze, one that made barely a noise, but still a sneeze. It could even be termed as cute. She released her pent up breath and opened her vivid green eyes.

"Good morning."

She let out startled gasp when she found Derek's face inches from her own, staring into her eyes. His eyes, clouded with pain twinkled with laughter. She scowled before giving him a puzzling frown. How had a gotten so close to her during the night? Where was Jon?

A sudden sharp jab of pain screaming through her stomach made her hastily close her eyes as she sucked in a breath. She turned her head up as she released the breath and looked down slightly to find that Jon was more then half on top of her, as she was on her back, thereby giving her room to get closer to Derek. Who was reaching out to touch her face.

She stiffened as his hand settled on her cheek, turning her face so she looked at him. "What was that?" he whispered, his voice husky with sleep. It settled over her and she shivered.

"What was what?" she whispered back, pretending she didn't understand. She knew he had seen her wince of pain. But if she told him then he would make her stop. He would insist on walking on crutches and she couldn't allow that. There was a chance with him on crutches that he would hit a rock or something with his foot and it would come out of the binding and would heal crooked. She couldn't have that, wouldn't have her commander end up a gimp because she had been weak about her own hurts. No, she would keep it hidden, just as she had kept it hidden from Jon.

"That wince," he told her, staring deep into her eyes, searching for the truth. But she had learned a thing or two from the woman in her visions and she quickly shuttered everything of interest from his view. Of course, she spoiled that by sneezing.

He smiled at her dainty sneeze and seemed to realize he was still touching her cheek, pulling it back fast. She saw the strangest thing on his face next. It looked almost… almost like a blush. She stared for a moment before dismissing it as nothing.

"Morning breath," she said hastily before turning to the side and allowing Jon to slip from her to the ground. He slumped down before rolling to the side and onto Derek. Tori made a snickering sound before sitting up completely and looking about her. She became aware very quickly of some needs that needed to be taken care of out of sight of the two beside her. But from the looks of Jon's state she needn't worry. Derek couldn't get up with his broken leg and Jon was sound asleep.

"I'll be back," she whispered rising to her feet and stifling the groan as her ribs protested. She hurried out into the woods a good ways, making sure that Derek wouldn't have any chance of seeing her then took care of her business. When she was finished, she lifted her shirt and undid the laces of her corset, parting it so she could look down at her stomach.

Angry purple and black bruises covered her entire abdomen where first the rope had dug into her during the fall and where it had dug into her when she had pulled Derek along the ground. She knew that the rest of the bruises were due to the fact that she hadn't gotten any help. But just the sight of it made her wince.

A rustle in the bushes made her look up and over her shoulder. Jon and made his way into the bushes where she was. Quickly, lest he see the ugly bruises, she did up the laces and dropped the shirt back down from where she had held it with her chin. She turned to Jon when she was covered and gave him the best smile that she could afford.

"Ready to go back to Derek?" Her voice was tight with pain for she had twisted slightly, sending more pain rocketing. He nodded and she headed back to where she had left Derek.

"Boy, help me into the bushes," He commanded her when he saw her. She gave him a funny look, staring at him, asking him what for with her eyes. "What else do you think? For the same reason you just left to go into the bushes."

She paled and she could have sworn she would faint as she felt the blood rush from her brain to heat her face.

* * *

Once again, Tori was dragging Derek along as she walked through the woods. She had figured out that if she held the rope in her hands even as it was looped around her waist, it took most of the pressure off of her ribs, making it much easier to walk. And she was able to walk much farther then before, even though she was sniffling as often as she was sneezing. And she was sneezing as often as she was stepping.

Jon was walking beside the litter that they had Derek on once more. As they walked, Jon entertained Derek with silly jokes and outrageous stories. Entertained him so much, he had fallen asleep. Now, Jon entertained himself with a stick that he was banging into the logs that he passed.

When they reached the road, Tori stumbled and hit her knees hard on the ground her hands falling forward to catch herself even as the rope jerked across her midsection. With a strangled scream she fainted.

* * *

_With quivering hands she slowly closed the door behind her. She knew the soldier had some half formed scheme of following her to her room after he had spoken privately with her mother, but she couldn't allow it. It was best for her to cut off all contact with him._

_After the sympathetic story she had feed him, Lee was certain that the soldier would love her mother even more then before. Lee really was impressed with her mother's performance. It was better then she had expected._

_When she had joined the two in the hall, she had first explained how ashamed she was with how she had acted towards her own daughter. Then, after she had burst into sobs of course, she had confessed all her sins to the soldier's chest, as she had conveniently fallen into his arms._

_After she had thoroughly purged her soul of all her wrong doings, she had tried for the final touch of apologizing to her jilted daughter. She had even gone so far as to try and hug her. Lee had taken a single step back when her mother had opened her arms to accept her into them. Then she had turned her back and walked away._

_Now, now she wanted to leave. She wanted to go to her beach and be alone, be alone to sort through her thoughts and her plans. She had to send the soldier out to the front line. Maybe her mother would follow him and she could be alone and in peace._

_She heard the knock on her door and opened it. But before the soldier could say anything, she breezed by him, her nose in the air, her demeanor as cold as the ocean in the dead of winter. _

_He fell into step beside her, but when he opened his mouth to talk she cut him off. "Soldier, I'm sending you to the front lines. Be prepared to leave at dawn," she gave him a good glare to keep him quiet._

_It failed._

"_She apologized Lee. And you just walked away. How could you turn your back to her?" his voice was hurt, but she knew it was on her mother's behalf. Already she had caught his heart and his mind. All that was left was his body, before she had full control of him. And from the scene thatLee had seen earlier, it wouldn't be long before she had him completely. Then she would suck him for everything he was worth until he had nothing but a husk of a body left. His soul would die under her poison. And as much as she could warn him, she knew that he wouldn't listen. She had lost and he would be gone within a year, alive, but no longer himself._

_He placed a gentle hand on her arm and turned her to face him. She would give him one last chance to free himself from her mother, one last chance to redeem himself in her eyes. In a quiet reasonable voice she asked him quite logically, "If she really loved me and was sorry for what she did, if it was really all my father's fault, why did she wait so long to say she was sorry? To say that she truly did love me?"_

_He could only look into her eyes helplessly. He didn't know the answer and neither did she. "My father has been dead since I was eight, Dock. If she truly loved me she wouldn't have waited this long to tell me so? She doesn't love me, and she doesn't love you. She wants attention. And I won't be the one to give it to her. Will you?"_

_He drew away from her, even though he didn't move physically. She could feel him pull away even though his body didn't move. He mentally and emotionally pulled away from her. And though she mourned at the loss, she couldn't allow herself to feel it._

_Instead she shrugged off his hand and told him not to forget his orders and walked away._

_When she woke the next morning, he was gone, but her mother was still firmly planted within the palace.

* * *

_

The pain woke her, throbbing across her abdomen even as she sneezed, her head thunking forward against the shoulder that it had rested on, her forehead hitting against the bone and wincing. She lifted her weak hand to touch her aching head. She sniffled and opened her red eyes.

"Where are we?" she croaked, her throat dry and sore. She soothed it with her hand, and suffered her troubles with a cough. Her head ached, her stomach throbbed and she was getting a scratchy throat. And she was sick. Again.

The subtle rocking and plodding of a horse's hooves brought her attention to the fact that she was moving. Or more accurately, the thing she was sitting on was moving. Or to be most precise the thing that she was sitting on was sitting on something that was moving. She looked down and found herself sitting on Derek's thigh. The one that was undamaged. His arm was around her back, resting on his thigh next to her hip and her head was on his shoulder. They were covered with a blanket. Across from her, Jon was getting the same treatment. Due to the fact that the break was on the lower leg, there was room for both of them on his lap.

"We're on our way to the healer's. She'll get us all patched up and then we'll be on our way back to New Hope. How are you feeling?" Derek answered her, bending his head close to her ear so that he didn't wake Jon, who needed sleep as much as she did.

Like crap she thought with a healthy mental scowl. But he was her commander and it was wrong to show weakness in front of him. "Wonderful."

She became very aware that she was sitting on his lap and though he didn't have the knowledge that she was a woman, she was very in the know that he was a man. With a more then healthy blush she slithered from his lap and onto the wagon bed.

She rubbed at her head and wrapped her arm close to her stomach holding the broken bones. She wanted so badly to be at the healer's, to be healed. She was tired of pain, tired of everything that had happened to her in the last couple of days.

But mostly, she was tired of the visions. There were so many conflicting emotions that they provoked in her. So many feelings that she didn't understand. She felt hatred, so strong that at times she felt as if she was drowning in them. And she felt this conflicting emotion for a person that she had never met, and she had never seen. In all her dreams she had never seen the woman's face.

And the pain that she felt, the betrayal of the man thatLee had thought she loved, it madeTori hurt too. But she had never met him, never met any of them. So why should she feel what she did if she didn't even know them?

Besides, it was exhausting feeling all these things. The woman in her visions, Lee, might be a cold as a fish, but Tori was far from it. And when she wasn't experiencing things from Lee's eyes, she felt emotions. To many emotions.

She was far more tired then she realized and ended up falling back to sleep, soothed by the rocking of the wagon. When next she woke, she found herself in the healer's quarters.

She quickly felt around her abdomen and found that she was still wearing her corset. But the bruises and sores were gone. It seemed the healer had been able to heal her without taking off any of her clothes. Even if the healer had wanted to, Tori had full confidence that Jon would have stopped it.

She pushed herself to a sitting position and hobbled like an old lady from the room. Her stomach was still tender after the recent healing. With a stifled groan and a sneeze, she took notice of the room before her. Derek was sprawled unconscious on a table, a sheet pulled to his waist. Other then that he was quite naked.

A healthy blush crept across her cheek as she stared at his sculpted chest. She seen Robert without a shirt thousands of times, but somehow this was different. The sight of his chest was making her stomach fill and flutter with butterflies.

She knew she shouldn't, but before she could stop herself, she walked to him and rested her hand on his shoulder. His skin was warm beneath her hand and made it tingle. Everything about him made her tingle. He was such a good person, true and just to others, caring of people's welfare. A wonderful fighter with a hidden humor, and though he laughed at her more then anyone else, she had a feeling that it was a secret laughter that he only shared with people he cared for.

At the thought that he cared for her, her heart nearly melted. She sighed even as her hand traveled across his chest up to rest on his cheek. Almost against her will, her thumb caressed it. His lashes fluttered and he turned his head into her cheek, his lips kissing it. And her heart did melt.

She knew in that moment that she loved him. Had always loved him, from the moment in the tavern when he had looked at her and dismissed her. That was probably what had started it. For all the time she could remember, men had flocked to her. They had loved her beauty, and she had hated it. She had always avoided them, avoided the fact that they were attracted to her. But with Derek, he had done none of that. He hadn't given her a second glance. And because of that, it had freed her to attract him.

And that had grown into a love. A love that she could no longer have. She was a man now, and she would be until she had a way to allow Robert to rest in peace. And after that, if she wasn't convicted for his murder, she would have to leave and start over as another person. There would always be someone who thought she had killed her brother of the heart and because of that, she could never be Torianna again.

With one tear slipping down her cheek, she dropped her hand from his own and turned away, her shoulders hunching against the pain that crashed upon her. A sob was welling up in her throat as she hurried from the room. She hadn't known love would hurt like this. Hadn't known it would crush her heart so badly.

When she had read of love in books it had always spoken so highly of it, had always said that it was a joyous thing, an emotion that made her see stars and dreams finally in reach, see hearts and smell flowers. That made her happy.

But this love, this love crushed her heart, wrapped her heart in it's bruising embrace and wouldn't let go. She wanted to weep with it, but she couldn't let herself. If she allowed herself this weakness, would she allow herself every other weakness? She would live through this, she had to do live through it. She had lived through Robert's death and she could handle the death of her own heart.

"Boy," the voice whispered as she headed through the door. For a moment, she felt as if she would ignore him and continue walking. But instead, she turned to him and forced a smile to her face. It was her silly little smile that was merely a tug on the corner of her lips, but it made Derek smile.

He had realized during the wagon ride that he had come to love the fierce little boy. He would see about his mother adopting him so they could be brothers. The boy had said he had lost his older one, and Derek had always wanted a younger one. If Derek mentioned it, he knew that they boy would agree to it.

He was simply glad that he had found such a good companion in his lifetime. True friends were hard for him to come by, due to the fact that he had sworn to the rules of being commander and the number one rule was to never be friends with his soldiers.

But in Torick's case, he was willing to break the rules. The boy was just so in need of someone to be a friend to him. He had seen so much hardship in his life, including the death of his brother. And to have to take his place in the family, to have to be the son that his parent's had lost. Torick needed a friend and as much as he hated to admit it, he needed a friend to.

Tori, slowly as she fought to mask the pain in her eyes, walked back towards him. Just the sight of him was making it worse. She didn't understand how she could do this for the rest of her life, let alone the remainder of time it would take her to find the people who had killed Robert. But she would do it.

"My mother is here. The people who found us sent a runner to New Hope. She's here to give us new orders. As soon as I'm movable, we're heading to Pirate's Swoop. The Seridian royal family is returning to Serinda and the King's want us to see to the security of Novellee and Burdock, wish us to make certain that Ciem and his pregnant wife Evie remain safe until they are safely in the harbor. Understood?"

She nodded but couldn't make herself speak. He had set up and the sheet had pooled in his lap, making his bronzed chest all the easier to see. She couldn't do it though, she couldn't look. It only made her want touch him, and she couldn't do that. He wasn't for her and he never would be.

She gave him another small smile before leaving the room. Derek called out for her, but she pretended not to hear and continued out on her way. When she entered the waiting room, her shoulders shook slightly with the recess of the pain. But she managed to gulp it down and shove it away. She had become so adapt at doing that with emotions that she almost didn't notice the struggle she felt.

Almost.

"You bastard!" the enraged screech shattered the silence of the room as she whipped around. She saw Jon's father running towards her, rage coloring his vision as she started to slowly back away.

The older man's heavy fist slammed into her jaw, slamming her back where she tripped over a wayward chair and sprawled on the stone floor her head cracking against it. Her eyes rolled up in her head as she curled away from the booted feet that went straight for her gut.

"How could you take my son into a battle with you!" he screamed as his breath panted from his open mouth. He had stopped his kicking only to grab her by the back of the neck and lift her up in his steely grip. She felt the bones in her neck rubbing together and nearly fainted with the pain.

Once he had her at eye level with him, her with her feet dangling several feet in the air, he shook her viciously before sending her flying into the wall. Her back hit first, then her limbs and her skull. The solid thunk her body made had the walls shaking and people running in even as she slithered to the ground.

"Tori!" she winced as she tried to stand, but Jon's small body knocking into her only helped to force her back down. He was sobbing and clutching at her, wrapping his strong young arms around her waist and squeezing. "They're making me leave you! They're taking me away from you! Don't let them do it!"

Numair had entered the room along with Harlow and the two of them had restrained Jon's father, pulling him from the room. She was alone with Jon. Carefully, she settled him on her hip and lifted them up. With painful steps she carried him into the room she had first been in and closed the door.

Alone and free of prying eyes and ears she shushed Jon. "What are you saying Jon? Calm down and tell me what is the matter."

"My father was very mad at you for the battle. He didn't believe me when I told him that it was my idea to go with you and you didn't know. He was awful mad. Wanted to burst into your room while the healer was working on you and kill you. Lady Knight Kel wouldn't let him. But still… he doesn't trust you anymore. Or anyone who trusts you. So, he's taking us away, back to our home. I begged him and mother to let me stay with you, but they wouldn't. They said you were a coward and a cheat. That you were a bad influence on me. They're taking me away from you Tori. I'll never see you again!"

After that tear-jerking explanation, he once more buried his head in her chest and sobbed. She sat in a chair and let him to it, rubbing his back as he cried. She wanted to cry herself, for many reasons. But she couldn't allow herself that. One tear, just one tear, and she would break completely.

Instead, she set about to soothe him. "Jon, shush. You're going to be a knight, aren't you?" she whispered to him. He nodded, hitting her chin with the back of his head. "Well then, why are you crying?"

He looked up at her, his eyes red and puffy, but dry. "Because… because I'll never see you again." But he wasn't so sure that was true anymore. She was smiling.

"Jon to become a knight, you must go to the palace. The Own's headquarters is at the palace. We'll see each other all the time! And you can be Raoul's squire and I'll see you even more often," she knew it was a lie. Torick would be gone from this earth by the time he became a knight. Either she was dead for murder or she was started over somewhere new. She would never see him again. And though it was the end for her, she couldn't crush his heart like hers was crushed. She would give him this false hope, if only he would smile for her one last time. She wanted the last image of him to be happy.

"This isn't the end, Jon, this is just a vacation. The years will pass like nothing. I bet… I bet you won't even remember me. You'll make so many new friends at the palace and at your home, I'll just be a fond memory. You won't need me."

He sniffed and smiled and rubbed at his red eyes. With an impish grin he wrapped his arms around her neck and hugged her tight, kissing her cheek. "I'll never forget you, Tori. You'll be my best friend forever. And when I get to the palace, you'll see. We'll spend time together always. You won't forget me will you?" he pleaded, staring into her emerald eyes.

"Never Jon. Never," she kissed his head and gave him one last squeeze before setting him on the floor and opening the door for him. His father nearly ripped him from her arms in his haste to leave. She followed them to the door and stood in it to watch them leave.

Jon mounted his small pony and followed his father and mother as they cantered from the little lane that the healer lived on. When he reached the final bend in the road he stopped and turned his horse.

He must have known she would be there, for he lifted his hand and waved one lone wave before turning the bend and passing from her sight.

Yes, she thought as she clutched at the pain that knifed through her chest, love hurt. It hurt terribly.

A/N. There you go. Now... if you haven't read my other stories, I insist that you do so, only because the next few chapters will be dealing with my original characters from those other two. And it would be much easier to understand and would make a lot more sense if you read those. K? Review me!

Nubia


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Okay... here is the next chapter. I hope you new readers have read my other stories, cause like I said, my other original characters are in here. That's right, all of them. So yeah... this one took a lot out of me. There was a lot happening in this one and I don't have any energy left. So, the next chapter may be a while. But anyways... thanks to...

demented-dreamer: Jon was supposed to be around seven or eight. And yeah... he went kinda childish in that last chapter, but that was because he really loved Tori and he didn't want to leave her and well, he is a child. lol. What do you mean by that 'one lone wave' thing? I don't understand. Could you explain please? lol.

Mage light: Well, here you go. Enjoy.

Zerrion: thanks for the compliment. And here is the next chapter.

cloverluck11: Glad it was a good chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter Fifteen:

_Lee smiled coldly as she settled onto the horse's back. It was just like him to want to challenge her prowess with the bow. But, as always she would win their little duel of skills. After all, didn't she have to Hunter's bow?_

_She smiled as she rubbed her hand over it fondly. Her finger's traced the shapes that had been carved into the deep red wood of the bow. They were depictions of woodland animals that would be killed with the bow. It was said in legends that the great Hunter God had carved the animals into the wood with his own hand. And had even hunted with the bow before bestowing it upon the royal family. The old king had always wondered why it hadn't been given to the highest rank, but now it was clear to her. She _was_ the highest rank, and the old king had simply been warming the seat of the throne for her._

_She smirked even as she fitted an arrow into the bow. Already she could feel the magic that hummed through the bow, the same magic that was infused within the rocks. Only, this bow didn't take her places, it allowed her perfect shots every time. She could aim at the sky, but if she wanted to hit the target it would do so._

_But she always kept this power hidden, at least as hidden as possible. She wasn't certain what would happen to her or the bow if someone found it. Or if they tried to use the power.

* * *

_

Tori blinked open her eyes and looked around her, confused. This wasn't her room, she thought, trying to make sense of where she was. This was… she looked up at all the weapon's that graced the racks on the wall and realized she was in the Pirate's Swoop armory.

She frowned, wondering how she had gotten there but the frown slowly faded, as did the color in her face. She stared at the rack before her, her eyes glued to the bow on the wall.

"It's not possible," she whispered, even as her hands reached out to touch. They settled onto the red wood before jerking back, startled by the singe that she had felt. The wood had been hot, scalding, as if it had just come out of the fire. It had burned her. But when she looked to her hands to find the burn wounds, there were none. Her skin was as healthy and whole as before.

She shook her head, puzzled, but reached for the wood once more. It was cool to the touch now, but far from normal. She lifted it slowly, feeling the strength in the wood. And the magic. And something deep in her recognized that feeling. Reveled in it.

Almost absently, she grabbed the matching quiver and slung it over her back, her hands still touching the wood, tracing the figures as Lee had done in her dreams. The wood mesmerized her.

In a fluid motion that seemed faster then the blink of an eye, she pulled the arrow, knocked it in the bow, pulled and let fly. The arrow flew, whistling as thee sharp head cut through the air before it, rendering it split before it sunk deep into the wood of a support post on the other side of the room.

Her eyes widened in shock before a deep smile creased her features. It seemed she would never need to practice her skills with the bow again. As long as she had this bow, she could never ever miss. The power beneath her hands, trapped within the wood, told her so.

If she didn't stop to search herself for how she knew all this, or for how the bow had suddenly appeared in the armory when it hadn't been there the first day she had arrived her, it was simply because she was busy, and not because she was scared of the answer she would find.

She quickly hurried to her room, she had much to do for this day. She had already gotten the next few days off patrol duty, and though she had to lie to Derek and tell him that it was the anniversary of her brother's death, she didn't feel as bad as she thought she should. After all, she was finally taking a step in the direction of finding Robert's killers.

* * *

Evie smiled as she squeezed her husband's hand tighter, watching as the ship that would take them to Serinda was secured to the dock at Pirate's Swoop. Ciem looked down at her and smiled. They had been married for several months now, but had decided to stay with Evie's father, DeGraw for a while before returning to Ciem's country.

Evie's hand slid gently down to rest over her slightly swollen stomach, feeling the baby inside of her moving. She smiled again and beamed at Ciem, knowing that together they would make that child the happiest in the world.

The people on the docks were cheering for them as Novellee and Burdock disembarked from the boat. They had decided to come as a welcoming party.

Novellee's face lighted when she saw Evie's rounded stomach. It hadn't been a secret for long that she had wanted grandchildren. The older woman rushed to the couple and enfolded both in an embrace before turning to Dolph and his fiancée, Mary, and smiling.

"I'm glad to see that you are all well," Burdock beamed before embracing his son roughly. He turned to Evie and embraced her too, but treated her with more gentleness. The connection filled her with the warmth of a father's love as she smiled at him.

"Are we ready to return to Serinda?" Novellee asked, bestowing a smile upon them all. Evie, who was about to nod, felt a slight prickling at the back of her neck.

She turned to see a small figure in the crowd, a woman no older then twenty watching them with eyes that she recognized. Ciem's eyes.

Evie reached out with her Gift and touched the young woman and felt in her something that she always felt in Ciem, pride and arrogance. But hers were hidden, squashed deep down inside.

But it wasn't so much the emotions that she felt in the girl that spooked her, it was how closely they matched to the way Ciem's emotions felt.

It was almost as if… almost as if the two were related.

Evie stared after the girl a moment longer before shrugging it off and turning back to Novellee. "Yes, we're ready. I can't wait to see my new home."

Ciem smiled and slipped his arm around her and she knew that no matter where she was, her home would always be with Ciem.

As they turned to enter the boat however, she noticed several scruffy looking people start to jerk about in the crowd. Almost as one, they turned and faced a rooftop and let out an ear-piercing scream.

Evie was frightened to see one of the screeching people not very far from them. It was grabbing at its ears, it's mouth open in a silent scream even as it stared up at a spot on the rooftop. Evie, too, looked.

"Ciem!" She gasped pointing, "There's someone on the roof!"

Ciem turned and looked, saw the bow in the assailant's hand and shouted, "Guards! Armed assailant on the rooftop!"

* * *

Tori shivered as the scream rang through the crowd. But she had no time to waste. She steadied herself by bracing her knees against the center support log of the building and drew an arrow from her quiver. She had eleven and each arrow was tipped with a field rock. She had discovered one day that there were several field rocks per home rock. She had located a home rock back at New Hope in a cave way out in the woods. She had explored it with Jon during one of their adventures before the bandit fight.

She had left the opening free, but she had the home rock so far back into the cave, around so many twists and turns it would be a miracle if any of them made it out. She, of course, knew the way because at the base of each turn, she had marked a notch at the very bottom of the wall so she knew where she was going.

Placing a hand to all the arrows laid out before her on the support beam she whispered "Sheshmaru" and fired.

She wasn't surprised at how many she hit. She did have the Hunter's bow now, and it gleamed so beautifully in the light. What did surprise her was how fast the crowd panicked. What shocked her was that they had even noticed that instead of killing the enemies she was sending them somewhere else. But they didn't know that. They believed that they were disappearing out of thin air.

"Where did they go?" she heard a person shout and that seemed to bring them into an even bigger panic. As the crowd scrambled to get away from the roof top where she was kneeling, to get out of the range of her arrow's, she the soldier's sighting their bows on her.

She fumbled her last shot, but she didn't have a chance to see where it went. She was certain that it hit the intended target, but a sudden discord in the bow made her wonder. But only briefly.

Before she had a chance to check that she had hit her target, a different arrow whistled through the air and sunk deep into her shoulder. She let out a scream even as the sudden force of being hit knocked her off balance and sent her tumbling off the roof into the waiting hands of the King's Own.

* * *

_Lee settled under the awning as the boats tied to her docks were emptied of people who migrated onto the sheltered section across from her. She lounged into the chair, her stance negligent and uncaring, the perfect image of a spoiled child who wanted more then anything to get her way. Her eyes, however, were what would betray her. They were deep and concentrated. But no one would have bothered to look. No one that she knew, that is._

_The people under her command were so used to her showing nothing that they had stopped looking. They took their cues from her voice and from the commands she gave. But never did they bother to look into her eyes._

_One long, white hand smoothed across her strong chin as she rested it in her palm. She sighed even as her shoulders relaxed against the back of the very elaborate and very uncomfortable chair. But her eyes, they zeroed in on the prince that was trying so hard to match her expression._

_His dusty hair fell across his noble forehead and into his greenish eyes. He had a very handsome face, she admitted, all the way to the tiny dimple in his chin. It was charming to, the way his eyes sparkled at her, as if he knew what her thoughts were._

_She watched him for several seconds more before the shifting of the crowd brought her attention. She looked at various noble's faces and saw the same thing. They were appalled. And by the direction of their eyes it was at the state of her dress. She barely suppressed a smirk even as she swallowed a small laugh._

_She snapped her fingers at the page sitting beside her and had the dark pleasure of watching the appalled noble's jump as he scurried to her side._

"_Are they staring at my britches, boy?" she demanded in a hard voice that reached only his ear. He looked up, barely able to make his eyes focus as the scent of her filled his nostrils. It wasn't often that a page like him was given a chance to speak directly to the commander._

"_Yes, your excellency. They are," he had the intense pleasure of hearing her tinkling laugh before she waved him away. She settled back down, prepared to suffer through the long introduction that the Tortallan's felt they had to give. It did frustrate her at times like this that the royal family thought she needed to know everyone one's name, down to the lowest of scholars. What she did need was the Tortallan army and their strategist. But, if she had to suffer the introductions to get them, so be it._

_When she looked back on this day, she really did believe it was partially her fault. As the names began to drone on and on and the heat began to climb unbearably, she had allowed her mind to wander to other things. Such as the way it would be so very cool in her cave at that moment. She really did wish she could sneak away and hide out in the cave, or out on the beach, with the sun playing through her hair and the waves tickling her toes. She truly felt that she could only be herself their at her cave. And she desperately needed to be herself for just a little while._

_She sighed and opened her eyes when she realized she had closed them. Her vivid green eyes opened to see a blonde woman bending over the prince's chair, already working her whiles on him._

_Lee gave a very deep growl of anger before springing to her feet and rushing across the open space, her hand settled on her sword. The Tortallan knights on guard saw her hand on the jeweled hilt and immediately reached for their own._

"_Mother!" Lee barked coming to a stop three feet from the woman she loathed. Her face was pale with anger, contrasting sharply with the hair the sun had made shine. "I thought you were packing."_

_She watched as her mother slowly straightened away from the handsome prince, her back snapping straight. "Now, why would I be packing?"_

"_The love of your life is going to the front lines. It's only natural you follow him there, isn't it?" Silence settled over the crowd and more then one shivered at the ice in her voice. Lee's hand never left the sword hilt at her side._

"_Who ever said he was the love of my life? All I wanted was a little attention. He blew it out of proportion. Now, run along and play dear. Let the grown ups talk," she waved her away with a hand over her shoulder, never turning to see the black rage that slowly consumed her daughter._

"_Guards," she hissed. Like a flash they stormed through the crowd, pushing the Tortallan nobles out of the way as they marched with stone faces to stand at her back. "I warned you before not to over step your bounds, Mother. You can't fool anyone with that act. The Tortallan's know the laws as well as you. You have no power and no say in this war. Step down, now Mother, or I'll have you thrown into a cell for undermining me. Choice wisely Mother."_

_She knew for a fact that the Tortallan's had no idea of the laws. They had hardly spoken to each other before and had never had an alliance. Them being here and been Lee's first attempt at establishing her rule outside her country. If a high-standing country such as Tortall saw her as the power figure of this country, she had so many more chances. And here was her place to prove she was the power figure._

_Slowly the woman turned and faced her.

* * *

_

For the first time Tori had seen the woman's face. She kept her eyes closed even though she had awoken, picturing the woman in her mind. Always before, when she had thought of the face she had never seen, she had made it so it resembled the woman she was inside. Needless to say, her imagined face was quite hideous.

But the true face that she had seen had been the most beautiful ever. The wheat colored hair only made her pale complexion glow, seemingly with an angelic light, but Tori hadn't believed it. Her stormy gray eyes had been too angry, to furious for her to be angelic. Never mind the fact that her features were those obtained only through the highest breeding, so perfect she was like a porcelain doll come to life. She was a vile bitch, and Toru truly hated her. She had never hated someone before and she blamed the visions for that.

With a deep sigh she opened her eyes. And met the same gray ones that she had just seen in her dream. She sucked her breath in, confused and uncertain. But the possibility still lingered in her mind. Her dreams had conjured the rocks and the bow, why couldn't it conjure a woman also? That thought, though it should have made her panic, calmed her greatly.

"You're awake," the woman said and Tori felt almost certain it was the same woman. She could hear the anger and the utter meanness in her voice and she stared at her with such loathing that it seemed to Tori this woman hated her almost as much as Lee had made her hate her own daughter.

The relationship may have started out without feelings on the mother's part, but in the last dream, the woman had definitely felt something for her daughter, even if it was hate. But that was beside the point. Tori stared at the woman that she had come to hate solely from the dreams and heard herself snapping, "Of course I'm awake."

"Don't take that tone with the queen," a calm voice spoke from the corner. Tori turned to see the woman that she had observed in the crowd. She had a strange feel about her, something that Tori couldn't comprehend but understood nevertheless. She had a special magic about her, like the magic in the rocks and in the bow. And it wasn't any less intriguing now then it was before.

"She isn't the queen. Her daughter is. Don't you know the laws? The wife isn't given any power. It falls to the children, to the son first, and then the daughter if there is no son. But the daughter only has control until she marries. So you see, she isn't queen. Lee is," she gave a smug smile and nodded her confirmation.

"But that is Lee. Not that you're allowed to call her that. Only close personal friends are allowed to call her that. You will address her as Your Highness," this came from the man in the corner. She turned to see him and gasped.

It was the soldier! She had conjured him also? Or had… had they conjured her? Regardless, she felt that it was her duty to set them straight.

"No, that's Lee's mother. Don't you know? Lee looks… well… she looks like me. But, I think she might be taller. And she certainly has colder eyes," she thought it over, still staring with her green eyes up at the man in the corner. Yes, she still felt the same as she always had about him. He made her want to fall into his arms and be held forever. It really was his fault. He had such a fatherly face, and his eyes were just so kind.

She frowned at him, studying him. Really, he looked much older then in her dreams. In her dreams he seemed to be about twenty-five, but here, here he seemed almost forty. "Have you aged soldier? Your hair has grayed much since I last saw you."

She heard an indignant snort and turned to the woman before her. She was laughing, a deep tinkling laugh, the same that she had always heard in her dreams. "That is no soldier, girl. That's my husband and the king of Serinda."

"No, he's a soldier. I do so wish Lee had thought of a way to get ride of you. You were never nice before and now you're lying. That is not at all nice," she crossed her arms and sniffed. "You didn't marry the soldier. Lee sent him to the front lines. And just today, in front of the prince, you admitted that you never loved him, that you only wanted attention. And then you told Lee to run off and play. I must say that was a terrible mistake. She called the guards and everything, and then she told you to step down or she'd throw you in jail. And then… well… then I woke up, so I don't know what shall happen next. But I must say, it would be best if you stepped down. Lee will send you off into the country and provide for you to live comfortably. All though, that is more then you deserve after what you did to Lee. And she was only seven too. But the war will go so much smoother with you out of the way. And who is that girl behind you? I must say, I've never seen her before. It is quite puzzling."

She stopped to take a breath and realized that she had just spilled her guts. And obviously something was wrong because none of them seemed to have a clue about what she was saying. She frowned at them and cringed when next the woman spoke.

"I don't have a daughter. Burdock is the King and I am the Queen. There are no front lines and there is no prince. I happen to love Burdock very much, as he loves me. And there is no war. And you, girl, are either crazy or hallucinating. Now, care to explain what you have done with my son?"

Tori stopped and thought, really thought. Her eyes opened wide and she stared up at the woman who had come closer to watch the expressions on her face. "You mean… you're not… he's not… you both are… where am I?" she looked quickly around the room, seeing for once that it wasn't the same style room that Lee had. She had never consciously thought about it, but there was a definite difference between the buildings that Lee owned and the ones in Tortall. And seeing these walls she knew she was still in Tortall. And these people weren't the people from her dreams. These people were real people, from her time. Her body began to shake as she stared at them her eyes wide and frightened. She had just revealed to them that she wasn't entirely normal, that she knew of an entire society that they weren't privy to. Most likely didn't even know about. "Who are you?"

"I, as I said before am Queen Novellee and he is King Burdock of Serinda. And this is our daughter Princess Evie. Now, care to explain what that whole rant was about? Who the heck is Lee and why do you think I look like her mother?"

But Tori wasn't listening. She had dropped her head in her hands and was trying very hard to stop the shaking. She was quivering so hard that her teeth were clicking together. She felt cold and hot at the same time, tired and energetic. And the trembling wouldn't stop. With a cry she wrapped her arms around her stomach and brought her knees into her chest.

Then the ring started to shake, slowly turning on her chest until the emerald came into contact with her skin. With another cry, she was wrenched from her conscious world into a vision.

* * *

_The woman walked slowly from under the shade out into the light and met the eyes of the woman that had been the plague of her life. Lee could practically feel the hatred rolling off her in waves._

_Lee met her eyes and saw what she would never have expected. Her mother's eyes were slowly being taken over by green. The gray was gone now, and the white was slowly turning a tainted green also. The same green as the emerald on her finger. The emerald the protected her._

"_You sold out," she whispered, her fists clenching as she fought to hold back the rage and once more the betrayal. "You're one of them!" she screamed that, and made all the people around them jump._

"_Of course. I've always hated you, you know. Always. Why would I side with you? You who are the demon spawn of the man who forced me. I could never stand to look at you, let alone to be ruled by you. Did you think I'd go quietly into the country and let you have you way with this country?"_

_Lee's eyes were clouded with rage even as she pulled the sword from its sheath. "You let that filthy man have you, didn't you? You gave yourself to him for the so-called 'power'. You're a nothing now, mother. A nothing! You're a bower," with that, she did what she had always wished she could._

_Even as the crowd struggled to recover from the shock, Lee sheathed her soiled sword and walked slowly back into the castle.

* * *

_

Tori gasped and lurched back from the hand that was gripping her arm, burning it. She cried out as she touched the swollen flesh and nearly whimpered. But as she looked up at the pregnant woman, Evie, she forgot her own pain and knelt to help her.

"Are you alright?" she asked, shoving out her hands for support. Evie was pale and weak, clutching at her stomach. Burdock came to sit behind her, and she leaned against him, to exhausted to more.

"What was that?" she whispered as she closed her eyes and struggled for more strength. "Who were those people? And why did she look like Novellee?"

"You… you saw that?" Tori asked.

"Yes. When I touched your arm, I saw what you were seeing. They're real, aren't they? Those people?"

"I believe they are. But I'm not at all certain. I… I've only seen them for a few months. And I don't know who they really are. I only know the woman, Lee," she sighed and sat back on her heels.

"None of that matters right now. What matters is that we find my son! That is, of course, if he isn't dead from that arrow wound," Novellee's voice was gone of patience. She wanted her son back and she wanted him now. She had dealt with the loose of one child before and she wouldn't do it again.

"What does your son have to do with me?" Tori demanded. She still didn't trust this woman. She had too much of the meanness from Lee's mother in her.

"You're the one who shot him!" She shouted and turned away to pace.

"You're son…"

"He's my husband, Ciem. The one who was with me on the dock. Did you see him when you watched me earlier today?" Evie looked at Tori, her eyes sad and pleading

"The one with the dark hair and blue eyes? Yes I saw him, but that still doesn't explain…"

"Don't try and deny that you were the one on the roof with arrows. We caught you so give up that act," Novellee's voice was no longer shouting, but it was still a dangerous threat. It made Tori shiver.

"Of course I was the one shooting. But I didn't hit your son. I wasn't even aiming for him. And I never miss—" her sentence ended on a gasp. But she had missed. She had felt the discord in the bow. She had missed her final shot. And she had hit someone else.

She had hit the prince of Serinda.

"Ye Gods. I hit your son?" she shouted, shocked and scared. But she had to calm down. He would be all right. It wasn't like the field tocks at the tips of arrows were strong enough to pierce his skin. The most the arrow could do was bruise him and she doubted it had done that. As soon as the arrow contacted his skin it would have taken him directly to the home rock and the momentum of the arrow would have been lost.

"Yes! What do you think I just said! Now, what have you done to him?" Novellee stormed at her, fists raised. Tori cringed back even as she shouted, "I didn't do anything! I didn't even mean to hit him! The arrow that hit me screwed my shot!"

That stopped Novellee in her tracks. "You didn't mean to hit him?"

"No, I was aiming for the man standing in front of him. But when the arrow hit me, it knocked me back and my shot went wrong. Why would I shot your son anyways? I don't even know him."

"Regardless of that, where is he?" this came from Burdock. She stopped to look up at him. She had noticed before, unconsciously, that they looked an awful lot alike. But it was as she stared into his eyes that she realized his were almost the exact same eyes as hers.

"Why, he's where I sent him. In the cave. I should probably go get him now. I didn't leave much food in the cave. But then, I didn't know I'd get a prince. Now, please give me my possessions and I shall go get him," she held out her hands, but Novellee was having none of it.

"Oh no, you're not going to go get him. You're going to tell me where he is and I'll go get him. Now, tell me where he is," she crossed her arms and glared. Really she wasn't at all like her normal self, she thought. But it wasn't her fault. She was sick with worry that Ciem was hurt and she didn't know how to help him.

"Trust me. It would much faster if I went to get him. And I can't tell you how to get him. Because I don't know how to get into the cave. I only know how to get out," she smiled and again gestured with her hands that they give her back her belongings.

"If you don't know how to get into the cave, how do you expect to rescue him?" Evie asked from where she was now sitting on her own. Burdock had gone to get her things, the only sensible one.

"Oh, I can get into it. But I don't know how to get in through the opening," as if that made any sense she thought. She could see from their faces that they were thoroughly confused.

"Of course, it will take me very little time to get into the cave, but it will take much time to get out. I think it best that you met us at the Corus. I'll get there as fast as I can. Now, my things?" Novellee wasn't going to give her back her things, she could see it in her face, but Burdock had already entered the room holding them.

Tori's eyes flashed to the things and then to Novellee then back to her things. She broke into a sprint for Burdock, grabbed her things and sailed out the door even as her hand dug into her back, reaching for the last field rock.

"Sheshmaru!" she shouted and disappeared seconds before Novellee crashed through the space that she had been.

"Did you see that?" Novellee shouted, her eyes huge as she turned to Burdock. "In a blink. In a blink she just… she just disappeared!"

"No, she didn't," Evie stood in the doorway, watching her mother and father-in-law. She had seen much more by touching Tori then just that little clip that Tori had seen. She had seen everything Tori had ever seen and then some. And she knew what Tori had just done with those rocks.

"She took herself to where Ciem is. And she'll be back. She honestly didn't mean to take Ciem. This girl… she had many things depending on her. It would be in our best interest to help her."

A/N there you go. Now... I'ma gonna go sleep some and read some and collect more creative juices for the next chapter. lol. Review me!

Nubia


	17. Chapter Sixteen

A/N Okay, I lied. I guess I will be updating pretty soon. lol. I just couldn't take a break from it. Lol. So, to clear up some confusion from last chapter, they knew she was a girl cause she was dressed like one so in the off chance she was caught she wouldn't be found out as Torick. Let me explain. The original chapter fifteen was one long chapter with nothing but Lee in it and a small section on the end with Tori asking for a day off and dressing as a girl. And then chapter Sixteen was the chapter fifteen that you read. But I didn't like the direction that the vision in the original fifteen was taking Lee, so I cut it out. And in the editing I forgot to mention the Tori was dressed as a girl. Sorry for the confusion. Now, thanks to...

Cheeryfearie: Lol... if you're still confused, just ask and I'll explain.

Sammey: You're welcome

A Dragon's Rose: I think some things will be explained in this chapter.

...: Maybe maybe not. It might be someone else who puts it together

demented-dreamer: lol. Evie isn't that powerful. It was something else that made her able to see all of it, and she understands that. So yeah... more mystery. And yeah... I kinda made Jon seem older, and then younger. But he was trying to be older at first to show Tori that he didn't need a babysitter. lol.

cloverluck11: If you pay close attention to this chapter you just might get it.

Zerrion: Hehe... I answered your questions in an e-mail. lol. So, yeah... check there. lol.

Mage Light: Sorry about that. But yeah... she was dressed as a girl so if she happened to be caught she wouldn't be found out as Torick. And the Own did catch her, but since it was the Seridian Prince that was kidnapped, they gave her over to them for questioning.

Chapter Sixteen:

Ciem shuddered as he saw the person on the roof. He screamed out a warning to the guards even as he saw long tendrils of dark hair catch in the wind as well as the skirt on the dress.

_A woman, _he thought even as she turned to face him and drew on the arrow. He let out a shout as she was shot and the arrow loosed into the air. He scrambled to block his wife's body even as he braced for the pain.

But there was none. The second it hit his shoulder he felt a pull, like a hook behind his navel. When he opened his eyes from a blink he was standing in a cave and the screeching men from the crowd were surrounding him.

As he watched their shrieking stopped and their eyes returned to normal. He hadn't noticed it before, but their eyes had been completely green, not even the whites remained. But as the green faded they became more and more human until they sank weakly to their knees, kneeling in the dirt of the cave.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded, staring as the men shook their heads. Most seemed unable to gain their strength back and fell into faints, but one man managed to rise to his feet and lean weakly against the wall.

"It was the witch. She was using her powers, calling to us. She was trying to get us to turn away from the Master, but we will never do that. We will steal her powers and take over the throne as the Master has ordained," His voice was eerie, almost a chant. He was staring off into space, almost as if he didn't know Ciem was there.

"What witch?" Ciem asked in a quiet voice. He didn't want to wake the man from his concentration. Maybe if he stayed like that, Ciem would be able to learn something, find something out.

"The witch on the roof. She thought she was so clever, coming back as that girl, that girl the Master's assistant couldn't kill. And she tried to kill us, just like before. But she won't succeed. She'll never succeed. We're always stronger then her. Always!"

"What girl?"

"That one that Master tried to find. He said her name was Torianna, but we all know she's truly that witch with her evil power. That power that none of us can control. That power that is poison," as if to prove it, the unconscious men on the ground began to shiver in their sleep. But they weren't asleep for long. Soon they woke, vomiting and coughing up blood. It wasn't until their skin started to melt from their bodies that Ciem looked away, shuddering.

He covered his ears with his fists when the agonized screams started, the sound of people dieing around him. The smell of burning flesh crowded his nostrils, making him gag. Heinous images entered his brain, taunting him even as he fell to his knees, sick and going insane when suddenly it stopped.

The only sound in the cave was his ragged breathing as he knelt facing the rock wall. He sucked breath into his lungs and shuddered with relief when he found it free of the stench that had been there seconds before.

"The witch uses her powers even now to steal away my companions. She has taken even their bones to use in her vile rituals," the haggard voice whispered from somewhere behind him.

With flagging courage, he slowly turned, preparing himself to view the disgusting images that he knew would meet him. But when he did look, there was nothing there. Absolutely nothing. The only evidence that what he had just seen had really occurred was the memories still lodged in his mind, the images so fresh to the surface, and the vomit he had left at his own feet.

"What… what happened to them?" he whispered, wiping his mouth with his arm and stepping away from the evidence of his fear and leaning weakly against the wall of the cave, much like the man across from him.

"The poison. The witch, she poisoned them and now they are dead. The Master has lost even more of his bowers then before," he whispered, his eyes solemn and filled with pain as he stared down at the spot that his companions had rested.

"But… where did they go?" he still couldn't fathom how everything, even their vomit was gone. Something of them should have remained, anything.

"The poison turned them into dust and blew them away. Even their ashes are stolen from us. She is truly a witch," a single tear slipped down his face, leaving a trek in the dirt that had clung to his cheek when he had fallen to the ground before.

"Did you know them?" Ciem asked, his voice compassionate, empathetic. He had learned so much from Evie including this and he used it now to comfort the man.

"They were my Brothers to the Master. We bowed together for many years. I am tired, I would like to rest," with bowed shoulders he lay on the ground of the cave, his back to Ciem and became silent, but Ciem was certain he wasn't sleeping.

Once the man was asleep it donned on him that there was light in the cave and he immediately sought out where it was coming from. Placed in intervals along the walls were torches. And at the base of the wall at each torch were more torches and spare things of fuel and matches incase the other torches ran out. Curious, Ciem wandered the boundaries of the cave to see what else had been left behind for them. In a bag near the back of the cave he found food and water bags. There was enough there to last him weeks. Obviously that "witch" had been prepared to bring them here, by whatever means it had been.

A sudden yawn caught him off guard and he realized that he was tired also. He lay down to rest and all though he didn't think he would be able to sleep, he found himself doing just that.

It was the screams that woke him. Several of the torches had burnt out so there was little light left in the cave, but it was enough for him to see the man wreathing on the floor, clutching at his head and screaming, much as he had before in Pirate's Swoop, but this was different. He could make out words.

"It's the witch! She's come to finish us off! Run, save yourself!" he floundered for a few more minutes, his arms and leaks twitching as his back went spasms. Ciem, started over towards the man, but even as he took a step a woman suddenly appeared before him, running as fast as she could until she slammed into his chest knocking them to the ground.

"You witch!" the man screamed. She stiffened on top of Ciem, staring confused down into his eyes, questions in her own, so clear he could read them. She had no idea what that man was saying.

The man, however, was viciously angry. He snarled as he climbed to his feet and grabbed the girl's foot, dragging her off him, or trying too. She screamed as if in pain and dug her sharp fingers into his shoulders and clung. He had to admit she was the strongest little girl he had ever met, for really she looked no more then twelve, her face beautiful but scared beyond reason.

He stared into her lovely emerald eyes and watched the change overtake her. Even as the man began to scream again her eyes glazed over and she stared past him not seeing him, or the cave. Possibly seeing nothing. He could only fathom what was hidden within the depths of this "witch" that looked achingly familiar to him.

* * *

_Lee scrambled for purchase on the slightly sloped battlefield even as the sword was kicked from her hand. Her first battle and this is how it had turned out. Her breath hitched as the man leered down at her, her hair wild about her face as her helmet had come loose hours before. He had tripped her to the ground and now he would kill her._

_Or so he thought. She had more tricks up her sleeves and more moves then he realized. With a hiss of triumph he stepped into range. She smiled evilly up at him as she hooked her foot behind his sending him toppling forward. As he fell towards her, she called the knife into her hand by saying it's name, Mumina. _

_As it slipped into her hand she used the sharp edge of the blade that never dulled to slice the man's throat. Never would she be defeated.

* * *

_

Tori gasped, her fingers relaxing on the man's shoulders even as she was pulled backwards. She assumed the man she landed on was Ciem, as he looked like the man she had seen on the dock, or what features she could make out in the dim light did.

"You vile witch, you killed them!" he pulled her completely off Ciem and then jumped onto her stomach, holding her arms down with his legs even as she struggled to get away. She wasn't exactly puny, but she wouldn't be able to throw him off easily.

"What are you talking about? The bandits? Are you related to the bandits?" she gasped, her breath leaving her. She stared up at the crazed man and saw his eyes. They were completely green, the whites included. "You, you, you're a… a…"

"I'm a bower and I'll kill you and bring your head back to the Master!" He screeched and slammed his fist into her jaw.

"You… you… you killed Robert!" she gasped, trying to regain her breath but the man was now sitting on her chest. She huffed for breath even as the anger rose in her chest. "You… you know… who… did it. Tell… tell me… who it was!"

"It was Zahib you vile witch and now you shall die, just as you killed me companions!" he lifted his hands and clenched them around her throat, squeezing but before he cut her off completely she whispered out the word, "Mumina."

The man screamed as the knife that appeared in her hand sliced through his leg. He screamed and screamed and screamed until she threw him off and rolled onto him, holding the knife to his quivering throat.

"Tell me where I can find him! Tell me!" she shouted at him, but even as she saw him begin to shake. His face turned a sick green and she flung herself away. She screamed when she saw his face melting off and then he turned into dust and vanished.

"No… no… NO!" she scrambled to the place he had been, the knife still held tight in her hand. "Tell me where I can find him! Tell me damn it!"

She sank to her knees in the dirt, hot tears flooding her eyes before she could stop them. And she didn't want to stop them. Her head fell into the hands that waited, elbows propped on folded knees.

The sobs shook her shoulders as she wept helplessly. She didn't want to stop even if she could have made herself. She had held it off for so long, tried so hard to be strong, and now, now she just didn't have the energy.

The bloody knife dropped to the ground and melted into the sand before disappearing, but she didn't notice. Neither did Ciem. The sounds of her sobs were breaking his heart. She had had such a sweet innocent face. To see her cry made his heart hurt. He felt a pull towards her, felt a connection.

With a murmured sound of comfort, he gathered her into his arms and cradled her to his chest. Her head hit his shoulder and her arms clutched at the back of his shirt as she sobbed and sobbed. He smoothed a hand down her hair, whispering into her ear. And she wept for what seemed hours.

Finally, far past the time his shoulder had gone numb from her weight, she quieted and fell asleep in his arms. He smoothed back her hair, felt her hot face and saw her puffy eyes. Even in her sleep her face was wracked with grief. He wondered what had happened to her and why that man had found reason to call her a witch. But judging from the way her breathing had evened out, she wouldn't be up to talking for a while.

He sighed and laid her out on the ground and found a place close beside her and returned to sleep himself.

* * *

_Lee's shoulders shuddered as she stepped into the cool walls of her palace. Hers and no one else's. For years she had wanted that so badly, wanted more then anything to be rid of her mother. But now that she had it… all she felt was a void in her heart._

_To think, her mother had been a traitor. And from the depth of the green in her eyes it had been for a very long time. How many years had she allowed her mother to observe plans for the war and the whole time she was relaying them back to the Master?_

"_What the hell was that?" a hysterical voice shouted from the entrance. Her hair whirled about her face as she turned to face the intruder of her personal thought time. She smirked when she saw the prince._

_Answering him in his language she said ominously, "That was a death of a traitor."_

"_How do you know? You didn't even give her a trial, a chance to explain herself! You didn't give her anything, least of all a death worthy of her title. She was a queen after all. You should have given her at least a little dignity," the arrogant prick crossed his arms over his chest and even had the audacity to look at her as if she was a stupid girl who didn't know anything. Never mind the fact that she had just killed someone._

_She would show him. "First off, I didn't need to give her a trial, her eyes spoke for themselves. She had given herself to the enemy and she had done it years ago. I didn't need to hear an explanation for why she gave away her soul to that bastard, it didn't matter. She got the death she deserved. And she wasn't a queen, she was never a queen. Her husband died before he could be given the crown. When my grandfather died, the man that was king, I was the only heir so I got he crown. My mother was never in any power. And as to her public death, she didn't get dignity because she had none. Novellee Nubiano had no dignity so she will receive none in her death. Is there anything else?" she had used her best condescending tone to give him that little speech. Then she mirrored his stance, though his arrogant look had fallen._

"_What do you mean by her eyes?" he asked, and she could see the curious light in his eyes. Though she loathed to admit it, because she wasn't all that fond of this man, she recognized a kindred spirit in his curiosity._

"_When the Master accepts a person to be his bower he gives them a certain amount of power to counter-act the magic that runs in my family lines. When they use this power their eyes are overtaken with it, turning them completely green. The longer they have the power the darker their eyes grow when they use it. My mother had this power, and she had it for a very long time. She was a bower to the Master," she sighed and rubbed absently at the ache in her head. _

_Almost as absently, the man lifted his hand and used his Gift to ease away the ache in her forehead. Her eyes widened at the generous move, but he seemed not to have registered it. He chewed on his lip, puzzled. "Who is the Master?"_

"_The Master is the man we are fighting against. For several years he has owned my country, and though men were given the title of King, they made no moves that the Master didn't ordain. They couldn't. The magic within the Master was too powerful for them to counter-act. Basically, the Master's magic is our weakness. We can't fight against it, and because long ago, my country decided life as a slave was better then death, we allowed the Master to take over us and we, essentially, bowed our rule to him."_

"_Then…" he paused to gather his thoughts. "How are you able to fight him?"_

"_I that this would be your next question. I was born with a stronger magic then anyone in years. Some say stronger then the Master himself. At least, it's strong the then the magic he can give to his bowers. He himself will not come to face me and as long as I exist and can shield my people with my magic, he can't touch us. But I can't shield everywhere at once, so the battle is evenly matched. The only way to end it is to go to the Master himself. And to do that, I need your army. Your army is completely immune to the Master's power. I won't have to shield your forces leaving me able to bring your army, me at the front, to the Master's palace. While your army is busy slaying the enemy, it leaves me free to contain my complete power and us it all against him. I fear I will need it all in order to defeat him."_

"_But, why can't you simply bring your army to his palace? And why bring an army at all? You can simply sneak in their yourself," he managed to put on that smug look once more, but she quickly wiped it away._

"_If I bring my army I will have to use my powers to shield them and I need to keep all of my powers in order to win. And I can't simply 'sneak in'. My magic is like a beacon to them. Every time I touch it, even for a split second, they will know where I am and they will come for me. I would be overwhelmed and killed. And since I have no children, the strong magic would die in me and my country would have no chance. I need your army."_

"_I will give you the use of my army. On one condition," he whispered, staring at her, his eyes content. "You must marry me."

* * *

_

Tori's eyes were sore when she cracked them open several hours later. She moaned and sat up, moaning even louder when the blood rushed into her head, making it pound. She clutched at it and gritted her teeth, making it stop. She knew these signs very well. She had cried last night and now she was paying for it.

"Idiot," she whispered, covering her face in shame. She had just been so frightened when that knife had appeared in her hand, then so angry when that man had flaunted the fact that he knew who had killed Robert. And when that man had died before telling her where she could find that… Zahib… it had been too much. She had had to many emotions in her, so many, that she had to let them our or implode.

But know that she was calm, she saw that the situation wasn't as hopeless as she had thought. She had a name. She knew whom it was that she needed to find. And if the dreams where true, which she very much believed now, it would be easy for her to find a bower and get the information from him.

A sudden grunt had her jumping. She looked to her left and saw a man sleeping beside her. Ciem, she thought even as she slowly backed away from him. There was much she would like to know about him, but at the moment she didn't much feel like waking him. He might be angry with her for what had happened. After all, she had never meant to bring him here.

She sidled over to the other side of the cave and sat with her back to the wall. There was something she wished to know. Most of the events that occurred in those short minutes before the man died were blurry to her. But one thing stood out frighteningly clear. She had pulled a knife that she hadn't had and didn't have now.

She opened her hand and placed it on her knee and stared at it. She traced the features of her palm with her eyes until she could see it in her mind. And then she searched for the feeling of the knife. She searched through all her memories and tried to conjure the knife in her hand, but no mater what she did, she couldn't get the knife to appear.

Finally, her face furrowed into a deep frown, she whispered, "Mumina."

In a blink the knife was in her hand. The blade gleamed in the light of the torch and she could see from the blue-black shades of the blade that it was made of the finest craft and material. It had an emerald on the hilt just as on her sword. And the grip in her hand was made to fit it. It was as comfortable in her hand as was the sword. She could tell that they were a matching set.

"What the hell?" she screamed and scrambled to her feet, dropping the knife in her fright. Ciem was staring at the knife that now lay on the ground. She caught of glimpse of his expression and quickly looked down herself. The knife was slowly melting away into nothing.

"How the hell did you get that? And where did it go?" he demanded, gaping at her. He stomped to her and she panicked. She had known this day would come, the day that the magic was discovered and they saw her for what she was. An evil witch.

"I… I… I" she slowly backed away, her whole body trembling, her eyes huge with fear. "I… I saw her do it in my dream and… and… and I just… I'm not a witch!" she covered her arms with her hands and turned away from him, waiting for a blow.

"I never said you were a witch. But I would like to know how we got here. And where that knife came from," his words and his tone helped to beat back the fear, but it was his kind smile that had her relaxing.

"I… I brought you here. With my magic."

A/N So there you go.I know, I was sneaky. I left you with a cliffy in the visions right? Hehe... couldn't help it. Tori only sleeps for so long. lol. Well if I get lots of reviews I will update sooner. lol. Review me!

Nubia


	18. Chapter Seventeen

A/N sorry guys, but I have an excuse! I was sick! And I kinda sorta now have a boyfriend. We've been talking for about almost a month now, almost every night, but we haven't really said anything offical. lol. So... yeah. Thanks too...

Cheeryfaerie: If you read the prologue of Avenger you'll see the name again.

Mage Light: You caught me. lol.

Sammey: Yeah... enough days for her to get back to them. And you'll find out later why they didn't recognize her.

demented-dreamer: Yes... much more. We are now entering the last leg of the journey.

warrior of Tortall: No... that's not what it is. It's something else. All will be clear by the end.

cloverluck11: Yay! Good!

Chapter Seventeen:

"Magic? I see no magic. Where did it come from?" Ciem stared at her, startled yet somehow he had expected the answer. He continued to study her face. He knew it was familiar. It was almost as if he had seen it before. But where?

"It's not magic that you could understand, your highness. I barely understand myself. I hadn't known what it was until just last night. I guess you could call it the power of spoken words," she whispered, her eyes slightly dazed, as if she hadn't realized this until the words left her mouth.

"That still doesn't explain how you got me here. And where is here?" he asked. A face was forming in his mind, slowly, as if the fog that covered it was being slowly burned from the image by the light that was knowledge.

"Here is a cave near New Hope, your highness. I do hope I'm able to find the slash marks that lead us out of here," she frowned and looked towards the bag of food. It had been very heavy on the way in and she didn't look forward to dragging it all the way back out. But it wasn't like she could ask the royal prince to carry it for her. She sighed, shrugged her shoulders and walked over to the bag.

"You don't even know how to get out of this place?" he demanded and she could read the outrage in his voice and eyes. She wanted to laugh but she wasn't certain that she was allowed to laugh at royalty. She thought back on her appalling behavior that she had displayed with the royal family earlier and nearly swooned with shame. They must think her a heathen.

"Of course I know the way out, your highness. Or I did. And I should be able to find it again by the slash marks at the base of each turn. Trust me," she gave him a slight smile, the tugged lip corner smile, and heaved the heavy pack onto her shoulders.

With a puzzled frown she strode over to the entrance to their little cave within a much bigger cave and felt along the wall for the notch to tell her which direction she needed to head. Ciem followed behind her.

"Trust you? I don't even know your name! Or anything about you! You could be that evil witch that that man claimed you were! Now, tell me how we got here!" Ciem nearly shouted. The image in his head was almost perfectly clear now and he didn't like the face that he knew he was going to see.

"My name is Torianna. And I am not at all a witch. I simply inherited very useful blood. This way, your highness," she gestured him to follow, but before they left, she grabbed a few torches and put them into the bag on her back.

"That still doesn't answer how we got here," he voice snapped into the silence of the tunnel walls, bouncing off them and sending the sound echoing back. He also grabbed a torch and followed her out of the little cave.

"I told you, your highness. I brought you here with my magic," she hadn't turned to face him, to busy concentrating on where she was stepping. She remembered from the first time she had been here that the ground of the tunnel was often times wet and slippery.

"But how?" he shouted, so loud she spun around to face him, the torch light making her face harsh. She turned so fast to face him, her feet slipped on the wet ground and she lost her balance, her feet flying out from under her.

The last she saw was the top of the tunnel before she blacked out.

* * *

Ciem sucked in breath as she turned and face him, the same instant that the face in his mind became crystal clear. They were one and the same face, only her face was younger and more feminine. His eyes sprang wide as he stared at the perfect likeness to his father.

Then he was moving to her because she had slipped and the crack of her head hitting the ground hadn't sounded at all good. He rushed to her side and knelt down next to her, checking her for a pulse. She was alive. He checked the back of her head and felt a huge bump forming. When he brought his hand back out from under her head he saw blood.

Cursing, he lifted her up into his arms and quickly saw to the wound, using his Gift to seal the wound and reducing the bump slightly. Then he flipped her back over and looked at her face in the torchlight.

He didn't know how he hadn't seen it before. The resemblance struck him so hard now. He laughed at his own choice of words. It wasn't a resemblance that he saw. It was a mirror image.

She had the high cheekbones, strong jaw, and that rounded chin with the stubborn tilt. She had the lashes that Ciem had often heard his mother say she wished she had. She even had the same lips as his father. Her hair was shades lighter but her eyes were the same as his, if slightly more vivid.

How had this come about? His father's parents were long dead so she couldn't have been Burdock's sister. She couldn't be a cousin either, not by how closely they were matched. No, they were mirror images. There was only on relation that they could share.

She was his father's daughter. Likely his half sister. But the thought of his father cheating on his mother was near impossible to comprehend. His parents had been so in love for so long. And as long as Ciem could remember, his father hadn't so much as looked at another woman. How could he have gotten a child from one?

It was impossible. She was from Tortall! And though it was highly possible that she had a Tortallan mother, Ciem doubted that very much. They were never here for very long, and when they were, his father and mother were inseparable. All of it was impossible.

The girl shuddered in her sleep and mumbled something. He bent his head closer to hear what she said. He jerked back in shock. She had spoken in Seridian. But she lived in Tortall and she had absolutely no accent at all. And the voice that she had used to speak was deeper, harder, and far colder then the innocent little voice she usually spoke with.

Puzzled, hurt, and feeling betrayed by his own father, he slung the girl along with the food pack over his shoulder and started to walk. She had said something about notches in the walls. It shouldn't be too hard to get out, and frankly, he needed the distractions from his disordered thoughts.

* * *

"_Marry you?" Lee sputtered, her face showing her clear shock at the proposal. Never had an official in the war taken an approach like this. Quite frankly she was stunned._

"_Yes. Soon. It would be a perfect alliance. And it would add greatly to my country. To think, Tortall being on both sides of the ocean. What could be better?" the prince sighed and looked to the left of her, his thoughts already on the coming enlargement of his country, no doubt._

"_My country will not be ruled by any one but me. If we marry you will denounce all power over this country. Do you understand," the sudden coldness in her tone brought the prince back to reality. He gave her a lecherous look and smirked._

"_Well… I suppose just your body will have to suffice then. After all, who would want this run down country? After the war is over, your country will be plagued with the effects of it. Famine, sickness, and a great many deaths. It will take a lot of money to bring it back to its peak. I for one don't want to have to pay for it. All I really want is you. You are one of the prettiest little things I've seen in years. Nothing like the swooning Tortallan ladies. No, you have spirit," his eyes wracked over her body clad in men's dress once more and once more the lecherous smile crossed his face._

_Lee felt as if her entire body had been washed in ice. She couldn't seem to swallow past the lump of cold fury in her throat. She wanted very much to shove all those words down his throat and hope he choked on them. But she had to think of her country. She had to do what was best for it. Had to free it from the bonds of this slavery that was so well hidden for so long._

_And if it meant marrying this disgusting bastard, she would do it. "I'll marry you, but only if you swear to denounce all power or claim to the throne. Is that clear?" he nodded and licked his lips even as his eyes filled with undisguised lust._

"_Yes. I will. When we marry in two days," he paused to raise and inquiring eye at her startled gasp, but she forced herself to nod that he continue. "When we marry in two days I will denounce all power and claim over this country."_

_She held out her hand and they shook, the bargain sealed. When he let go of her hand, she curled it into a fist and slammed it into his stomach, hard. And as he doubled over with the pain, she flicked her hair over her shoulder and continued down the hall until she was out of sight.

* * *

_

Tori's stomach ached so badly it woke her from her dreams. She could feel her ribs digging into her internal organs and nearly groaned even as she bobbed more on… what was she on?

She looked around her, but all she saw was a broad back and the cave floor. She started to struggle, frightened. She had no idea where the heck she was or who the heck was holding her. A growl reached her ears and a hand slapped her legs to make her stop, but that only scared her more.

"Let me go you bully!" she shouted and pounded her fists into the man's back. She knew it hurt, she had built muscles. But she had the feeling it was more annoying then painful.

"Will you stop? We're nearly out of this blasted cave then I'll put you down," the man growled.

Cave… she gasped and became rigid, horrified. She had just hit the royal prince. Several times. There had to be a law against it. Not to mention it was downright rude and highly embarrassing.

"Yes your highness," she whispered and brought her hands up to cover her mortified face. How could she have struck the royal prince? She would surely get it now. She groaned and finally relaxed and allowed him to carry her, even though her stomach still ached from the pressure of his shoulder jutting up at her.

Finally after what seemed like hours, they made it out of the cave and he placed her on her feet. She curtsied to him and said fervently, "I'm most sorry, your highness. I had forgotten myself for a moment and didn't realize it was you that I struck."

She looked up at his face and saw his eyes flash with what looked remarkably like pain. She frowned at him, her brow creasing and he sucked in a breath and looked away from her. "Have I done something wrong, your highness?"

She looked so much like Burdock, Ciem thought as he swallowed heavily. There was no doubting it now that they were in the light of day. She had to be Burdock's daughter. She was just like him. Her face, her voice, her expressions, even the way she frowned was just like his father. She was exactly like him, even the way she walked reminded him of his father. It made his heart hurt to know that somewhere was a woman that his father had cheated with.

But there was no sense blaming this innocent girl for that. He had always wanted a sister, and now that he had one, even if it was just a half-sister, he would enjoy her. He would become her friend and he would help her. And he would find out why she spoke Seridian and why her face was wracked with grief after killing that man.

"Come, call me Ciem. After all, we will be spending several days' company together. Now, where are we?" he turned to her and gave her a smile. She returned it in a way, but he could still read the weariness in her eyes. She didn't trust him, and he couldn't blame her.

"Several miles outside of New Hope. The road towards the capital is just a few miles north. If we travel fast we should be able to make it to an inn by tomorrow, late tonight at the earliest," she started to move off in the direction of the woods.

But suddenly she turned and hurried over to the entrance to the cave. She knelt on the ground and dug for a few moments before pulling a bag from the ground. "Coins," she told him over her shoulder as she filled the hole back up and returned to his side.

"Shall we go?" she motioned and he nodded. She took the lead and he walked behind her, chatting amiably. She made the proper responses to what he was saying, but he got the feeling that she wasn't listening to him. With a sigh, he quieted and simply let her lead him through the forest.

He was sure of one thing though. He had a lot of questions for his father when they made it to Corus.

* * *

The gentle bumping of the boat against the dock woke the Prophet from his stupor. He clutched harder the book to his chest and stared, confused at the man who was gently helping him into a chair with wheels.

The boat to Tortall had taken most all of his strength and now he barely had enough left to walk. And it was becoming harder and harder for him to tell the difference between reality and the prophecies that were yet to happen. The only thing that remained clear to him now was the girl. She had done so much, so fast. He barely had time to watch to make certain that she crossed the right paths.

And now she was at the point in the prophecy where she needed him. Finally he would have a chance to meet the woman who had been a part of his life for longer then she had been alive.

"We're almost to shore, brother," a voice whispered into his ear. He knew that voice. It was Nathaniel's. His older brother. They had matching gray eyes, the only physical evidence that they were related. Their sharp minds, though, were very much alike. Long before the Prophet had allowed Nathaniel to read the prophecy. Nathaniel knew as much about it as the Prophet did and often time he used Nathaniel's input to help him. And because the Prophet was too frail he had sent his brother out to help Torianna through. But now… now it was his turn.

He had known for many years that this prophecy would be the most important one he would ever see and now he knew that he was right. And he was a part of it. Before things could end Tori had to meet him. Which was why he was here in Tortall.

"To… Corus," he rasped, his voice as frail and weak as his body had become. The prophecies had stolen his youth and his strength, but they wouldn't defeat him. Not yet. He would do this one last thing before he succumbed completely to the life he had been cursed with since birth.

"Yes, brother. To Corus. But you must rest now. I will get you there, don't fret," the soothing voice of his brother lulled him to sleep.

* * *

Tori sighed as they entered the inn several hours later. She was exhausted from all the walking and talking that Prince Ciem had forced on her. Really, did he need to talk so much? After giving her a few moments of solitude, which she had used to think about how to find the Zahib character, the prince had started back in again.

Finally, she had been forced to participate or listen to another boring story. Now, they were finally at the inn. She had explained to him that while in town he was not a prince, he was just a regular person. And she was his associate, traveling with him to the capital.

She knew the amount of money she had in the coin purse and realized if they wanted to make the money last as long as possible, she would have to share a room with the prince. Not that she minded, but she wasn't so certain how the prince would feel about it. But sense it was her money, he would just have to deal with it.

"One room please… two beds," her face was blank as she stared at the man who owned the inn. He looked from her to the prince then back at her and grinned.

"Sure you wouldn't like one bed?" he gave Ciem a vile wink and Tori's eyes flashed. Really she was in no mood for this. Not at all. She was tired from walking and listening to the prince jabber on and she was hungry and her head was pounding like the dickens.

"If I had wanted one bed I would have asked for one, wouldn't I? Now… do as I say!" the words were hurled from her mouth, ugly and mean. She was shocked herself at what she was able to say, she felt her mouth gape slightly as did the managers. But if she wanted what she asked for she had better keep it up. So she slammed her mouth shut and glared.

"Right away my lady," the man whispered and scurried to grab the key and lead them up to the room. He hardly whispered a word as he saw them into the room and gave Ciem the key and left, closing the door behind him.

Tori hardly noticed.

She had known that voice that had slithered from her throat. It hadn't been her own, and it hadn't really been her conscious thought to say those things to the man. No, it had been someone else. It had been Lee.

With a muttered grumble she rose to her feet and paced to the window, staring out. How had that happened? Somehow, she had been Lee and yet herself at the same time. She had been both without really realizing that she was someone else. So easily Lee had slipped into her, had been in control of some part of her body.

And she hadn't even known. She hadn't even felt her be there, she simply was. Tori frowned and rubbed at her forehead, her eyes unfocused as she stared out the window into the trees, her thoughts worried.

How many other times had Lee been there without her knowing? Subtly directing her thoughts, her words, her actions? Had she truly ever been in control? How much control did she have?

She made a distressed sound in her throat, a keening moan almost, and savagely attacked her lip with her teeth. Her frown deepened until a dark line appeared between her brows and she folded her arms across her stomach. What would she do?

She turned and began to pace, her thoughts scattered and half-formed, only one thing standing clear. How could she fight against someone she didn't even realize was there?

"Torianna!" the near shout brought her out of her distressed state. She stopped her frantic pacing and turned to blink at Ciem. She had forgotten he was there completely.

"Yes, your highness?" she asked, dropping her worried stance and made herself act normal, though she struggled to keep her hands from fidgeting with her skirt. It had been so long since she had last worn a dress, she thought, drifting from the conversation despite her effort to stay. She hadn't worn a dress since before entering the Own, since before getting her visions of Lee. The woman that could be inside her right this very moment.

Her eyes widened in horror at the thought and she nearly trembled before Ciem snapped his fingers in front of her face. She blinked up at him and frowned. "I'm sorry, your highness. What were you saying?"

"I was asking of you would like to go to dinner with me," he gave her an encouraging grin, but she shook her head.

"No. If you don't mind, your highness, I think I'd rather sleep. But I shall join you for dinner," she curtsied and waved him towards the door. He gave her a last, long look before leaving.

Truthfully, she didn't think she could mange to get to sleep. Lee was in her dreams. What was to stop her from getting into her again when she was sleeping? Taking complete control with out her even knowing? It was one of the scariest thoughts she had ever had. It made her shake and drained her completely of energy.

She sagged onto the bed and laid back, her eyes wide and open upon the ceiling even as her body completely relaxed. She didn't want to sleep, but against her will she found her eyes dropping and her thoughts drifting away even as the fog of sleep settled upon her.

She sighed out a breath even as her sleeping body turned onto its side into a slightly curved position, knees drawn slightly into the chest. Her hand fisted near her cheek on the pillow, her face turned to the door. And she dreamed.

* * *

_Lee slammed the door to her room closed with a loud bang and stormed across the large expanse of her bedchamber to the terrace doors. She flung them wide and walked to the guarded railing. She slammed her fists against it and leaned hard against them._

_She couldn't believe herself. Or that man… her fiancée. What had changed? Seconds before he had asked that damn proposal he had seemed… nice. He had seemed… like someone she could almost be a friend with._

_He had seemed so curious… a kindred spirit. And then, he had seen or at least understood that she was in pain and he had relieved her of the headache. But it had been an absent gesture. As if he was used to caring for people around him._

_So what had changed? Why had he acted that way with her? Had the first part been an act to get her thinking, having some of the doors hiding her emotions that she had locked close creeping open again._

_She should have known it wasn't real. And now she closed those doors with even more force and kept them closed with the ice that was her rage. She would be damned if she let that…that… that man make her feel anything. She'd show him._

_She'd make him so miserable that he wished he had never agreed to marry her. She'd swear on that._

A/N well there you have. Enjoy. Review me!

Nubia


	19. Chapter Eighteen

A/N I'm truly deeply sorry that it took me so long to update. Really I am. But you really should thank me. For the last two weeks or so, everything I've written has been utter crap. Really... it was terrible. I myself couldn't even read it. It was soooooo bad. So... I took some time off and didn't write anything until I was bursting out of my skull with ideas and tada! A new chapter! And it's a good one. lol. Thanks to...

steph: Thank you

Sammey: Thank you!

Zerrin: You'll just have to read to find out. lol.

demented-dreamer: Once more I'm so so so sorry! But I'm glad you thought the last chapter was amazing. Hope you like this one also.

cloverluck11: Sorry. So sorry it took so long.

Randomisation: I'm glad you like it.

cylobaby: Lee does seem kinda evil, but I'll get into that later.

...: I don't know... lol. Maybe she will... maybe she won't.

Chapter Eighteen:

Ciem snuck into the palace near to midnight like a thief after a guarded treasure. Or an assassin after its target. He was confident that only his intended would know that he was there. After all, he had been taught by the best. As soon as he slipped into his parent's room his breathing settled to match that of his fathers. He had practiced this so many times with his mother, against his own father. The father that had a daughter from a different woman.

The anger rushed into him at the dark thought and he welcomed it. He had hidden it for so long from Torianna. She had always been so pale, so fragile, that he had been afraid the sight of his anger would have frightened her, break her. Which was silly, because obviously she was an amazingly strong woman. He had seen evidence of that several times.

But near the end of the journey, her face had been so pale, so thin… he had feared she was sick. But she hadn't faltered once during their long walks in between towns. And often he had called the breaks because he had suspicions that she would walk herself to death. Now that she was gone though, he needn't worry about her, so he let the anger spring forth.

Part of his anger was the fact that she _was_ gone. They had shared a room, as they had every night for the past two weeks that they had traveled. Yet somehow, with all his training and light sleeping habits, she had snuck out of the room without him waking. The only other person who had managed that was his wife, and she had done it because she had been saving him from harm. What was Tori saving him from? Or herself from? She had left a letter to him, at least.

_You can find your way to the capital from here. Your Highness._

_-T_

He pictured the scrap of dirty paper in his mind and nearly laughed. It hadn't been a letter, it had been a scribble on a scarp of paper. There was something not quite right about that girl, despite the whole "magical blood" thing. Something was definitely going on with her. No matter what way he looked at it, she was hiding something very important from him. Such as the reason she carried a sword and knew how to use it.

But that didn't matter now. What mattered was the fact that she had her father's face and he was going to find out why. Ciem stalked to his father's side of the bed, silent as a ghost and used his magic to lift up his father from the bed and carry him from the room.

Once safely into the hallway and several feet out his mother's hearing range, he ended the spell and allowed his cheating father to slam into the ground. Ciem took satisfaction in the fact that it hurt. He knew that it did. Burdock came back up spitting and mad as hell, his fists raised for a fight. Ciem would gladly have given him the fight he wanted he was so furious, but when Burdock saw his son, he dropped his stance and smiled, relief apparent on his face.

"I don't believe it. That girl really did it. She brought you back. You aren't harmed, are you?" he asked, gazing at him with loving eyes, a concerned frown on his face. A frown that Ciem had seen so many times on Tori's. The rage nearly consumed him and he needed an outlet.

"You bastard," he growled in a guttural tone even as his hands bunched into fists. He wanted so very badly to slam them into his beloved father's face, the face that was Tori's, but he had been taught justice. He would give his father a chance to explain, but he wouldn't hide his fury or disgust. "Who is she?"

"The girl? I don't know. I thought you could tell me that," he was still frowning and Ciem could see her face, so clearly in his mind. The pain stabbed his heart so suddenly that he nearly drowned in it.

When Ciem had been traveling here, so many different scenarios had played through his mind, different ways that he had confronted his father, different answers to his questions. He had seen his father begging for forgiveness at his feet, or laughing viciously in his face. He had seen him denying it or confessing with pitiful tears.

But never, ever, had he seen himself unable to condemn his father for the sins that were so evident to him.

"How could you do it?" Ciem whispered, his voice chocked with the emotions. He could see his father, embracing a woman, holding her close like he had seen his parents do countless times before, the love clear on both their faces. Only the woman who he held was someone else, someone without a face. Someone who had made his father no better then a common adulterer. How could his father look at his mother with such love then conceive a child with another woman?

"Do what? Ciem? What is it?" he reached out to touch Ciem's shoulder, but Ciem jerked back as if his father's touch would be poison. He stared at his father, his eyes wide and bewildered, hurt. Before he allowed his father to see the hurt, he turned away and began pacing furiously, his fingers delving through his hair, pulling at it, making it wild.

"You can't tell me you didn't notice. That girl, Torianna. She has your face!" he shouted the last part. "Who was it? Hmm? Who did you sleep with? Was she Tortallan? Or Seridian like Mother? Who? Who could be so desirable that you could betray my mother, betray your love for her?"

"I… I don't know what you're talking about. Ciem…" he watched his son pace back and forth, back and forth, his fury evident in the length and speed of his stride. Burdock's breath rushed from him as if he had been punched in the stomach when he saw the look in his son's face. Hurt and betrayal. Emotions so fierce he felt pain at the thought that his son could believe things of him to cause these emotions. "What… what do you think I did?"

"Don't tell me you didn't notice? Brown hair, green eyes, the little line between your brows when you frown. She even walks like you do, with her shoulders back slightly, her chin up, even if her eyes remain downcast. She's a mirror image of you Father. And I want to know who the mother is," Ciem shouted the last as he stopped his pacing to look at his father. Who's face had gone pale. Deathly pale. If Burdock's hands hadn't been hidden in pockets he was certain he would see them shaking.

"How… how old?" Burdock chocked off a whisper from a throat clogged with hope and pain. A hope that he had thought had been squashed so long before. All that searching, all that disappointment. Could it be true? Could she be? He forced the thoughts away and concentrated on what his son said.

"Eighteen, maybe nineteen. But I'm guessing because we didn't speak much," Ciem looked at his father quizzically when he made a strange noise in his throat. There were emotions in his father's eyes that he had never seen before. But he was certain there were emotions in his own that were new also.

"Where… where is she now?" he asked, his green eyes searching the corridor. He had to see her, had to see for himself. He could conjure the memory of her in his mind, so sweet, so innocent, so… _him_. But he didn't trust the memory now that he knew there was a chance that he was her daughter. His hope would twist her features, make her different then she truly was. He had to see her again, before this bittersweet hope died or killed him.

"She left this morning. I assume she had other business to return to. Now… who is the mother?" Ciem demanded. He nearly growled in frustration when Burdock broke down and cursed. His voice was rough when he prayed to one of the Gods. The Gods of fortune.

"Oh Ciem… Oh my sweet sweet son. You have no idea what you have done." He began to laugh as he headed back down the hall to his room. He didn't need to see the girl's face again. His son's convection of him was enough. His son believed she was his daughter and that was good enough for him.

"Novellee!" he shouted, over and over so excited he could chock, running down the hall and kicking the door in with his foot he. "Novellee! Wake up! Wake up!"

She grumbled and sat up, her face tangled around her hair and gave him a deceptively sweet smile even as her eyes flashed daggers. If there was one thing she hated more then anything, it was being disturbed from her sleep. "What?"

"I found her! I found our baby girl!"

* * *

Derek turned once more in the bed that had become over heated with his angry body energy. He was now facing Torick's bed and he supposed that was the problem. He hadn't gotten a good night sleep in two weeks. The two weeks since Torick was gone. And it was frighteningly clear to him now, why he couldn't sleep.

Torick was gone.

He had vanished. Derek had given him a few days off, one or two at the most, and Torick had taken the days and run. But Derek refused to believe he was a deserter. No, there was something more to this. All of Torick's things had been found, including his horse Wildfire, with the Own things. There was no reason for Torick to leave all his things behind if he was never coming back. No reason to leave him.

But then again, his boy didn't exactly have the same feelings towards him. Derek might think of Torick as a brother, but that didn't mean that Torick saw him as such. For all he knew, Torick hated him and only put up a show so that Derek didn't kick him out. But that didn't seem like something that he would do. Not that Torick did anything normal. Torick was well, different. Derek frowned as he thought back on the boy. So many things didn't add up with him. For one, the hair that he had seen, sticking out over his ear. It had been dark, and long. Nearly to his chin. Even if a he was concealing hair, why would it be that long? What was the purpose of having hair that long? And the time when Derek had broken his leg in the river. He had dosed fitfully and had dreamed, dreamed that a woman was taking care of him, but when he woke, there was only Torick.

And when he slept, and had nightmares, he sometimes spoke, in a voice that was not right. In his dreams, Torick's voice was dark, husky, feminine. If he hadn't known that Torick was a man, he would have been attracted to that voice.

But that's just it, he thought, finally coming to a revelation. He wasn't at all certain that Torick was a man. There were just so many things that didn't add up with that kid.

Derek turned over once more before deciding he would never get any sleep. It was best if he went for a walk, around the halls, through the barracks, maybe even in the stables. It didn't matter. He just needed to walk. Maybe that would make him tired, maybe then he would be able to sleep. But he knew that it wasn't a fact that he wasn't tired that kept him awake because in truth, he was tired. It was his thoughts.

His troubling thoughts that maybe…. just maybe…. Torick wasn't really who he said he was. Wasn't the man he said he was.

With a frustrated sigh he pushed to his feet and into breeches and headed out into the open hallway.

It was as he was walking a deserted hall that he saw a slight figure, one that he was certain he recognized, one that he had wanted to see for many a night, slide into a brightly lit closet.

* * *

Tori, her heart pounding, fingers shaking with anxiety and fatigue, quietly closed herself into the closet. First things first, she thought and grabbed the wig from her pack. She had been glad to see that her things had been left untouched. The money that she had left on the top of the stack had been all there. If any one had gone digging through her things, surely they would have taken the money or shifted it in the least. Since it was still in the same spot, she could rest assured that no one has seen her wig or the corset.

With deft movements, she twisted her hair up into a bun on top of her hair and slapped the blond wig onto her head. She took the pins from her mouth and began shoving them into place.

She thought back on the day's events and nearly sighed with relief. It had been hard, very, very hard for her to escape Ciem. But she had outsmarted him. The night before, she had left her home rock in the stable, up in the hayloft under a huge stack of hay. After leaving him the scrap of paper, telling him to get a move on, she had used her field rock to get into the loft. Then it had simply been a matter of climbing out of the loft and heading out.

Tori had blessed her luck when she had found one of the stable boy's extra clothes and she had changed into them. It wasn't good for a woman to be seen walking around the Own buildings. So, using her cloak as cover, she had hidden her hair under the hood and her figure by wrapping the loose ends around her body and allowed the breeches on her legs to show others that she was indeed a young man.

Then she had diddled away hours in the city, waiting for night and the others to sleep so she could sneak back in and change into Torick. She would change and then sneak into the barracks, get into her bed and in the morning, simply explain to them the lie that she had been working on for the past two weeks. She had had a lot of time to work it out while Ciem had tittered on about God's knew what. Her lie was nearly perfect.

She had taken the two days off with the intention of sitting alone on the sands and working through her grief by herself, of course. But then, unexpectedly, her parents had showed up and taken her with them back to their estate to be with the family for the anniversary of her brother's death. It was a story easily believed and she had run through the scenario over and over until she knew it as if it had actually happened. If any chose to ask her repeated questions to catch her in a lie, that would be impossible. She knew her story far to well.

Once her wig was in place, she reached to grab her corset from the bag, dropping her cloak to the floor, revealing her petite figure. But as her hand stretched out to dig into the bag, she felt a tickle in her nose. She sucked in her breath and closed her eyes and gave a dainty little sneeze, one loud enough that the man standing outside the door heard and hesitated.

I had better not be getting sick, she thought as she lifted her shirt up and slipped the corset on. With practiced moves, she pulled the strings tight, tied them and paused to sneeze again. The door opened with a slight creak seconds before she allowed the shirt to drop down into place.

Tori lifted her eyes to the man's face and was horrified to see that it was Derek. Of all the people to see that, it had to be him.

"You're… you're…" he stared at her as all the pieces fell into place. Everything made so much sense to him now. How could he have missed that? It was so obvious to him, so bloody obvious. He almost called him… her… on it. But he could also see the terror in her eyes, see that she still didn't trust him, see that she still needed this disguise. And a part of him still deeply loved the boy that she had been. That love for the boy he had thought was a brother to him was transforming into a love for the woman who could be a sister to him. And he wanted to help her. And in order for Derek to be able to help her, she had to trust him.

"I can explain!" she nearly shouted, scrambling to reach him, to get him to focus on her face and not her body.

"… You're back," he said and smiled. He wouldn't call her on the lies, now that he knew what they were. He would let Tori come to him. It would strengthen the relationship and bring them closer. And that's what he wanted. To help her and be closer to her. He saw her relax and nod and try to give him a smile, that funny little tugged lip-corner smile and nearly sighed.

"Yes… and I can explain why I was gone so long," she nodded, grabbed her pack and motioned for him to lead the way out. She would feed him the fake story and hope that he hadn't noticed the corset. Her plans were so close to being complete, so close.

Only a little more time, she thought, and Robert would be able to rest in peace.

* * *

Zahib hissed as the master threw yet another plate against the wall, smiling when it made a pleasing crash. Really, this was becoming quite ridiculous, he thought, scrunching his face up as the master's shouted words reached his ears. He was quite tired of all of this. It was pathetic. The master was using his own lack of power to rage and rant. That would be over soon.

With a careless gesture, he dismissed the Bower's from the room. They followed his command without a thought, as easily as they would take a command from the master. Maybe they obeyed him so well because he was the Second, or maybe they did it because they could already feel the shift in power, feel through the connection that the Master was being overtaken. Whatever the reason, they left him alone with the master.

"Master," Zahib called as he rose to his feet, glaring. Already, he defied laws that had never, in the history of Bower's, ever been defied for fear of death. No one stood without permission. And no one glared. Really, how could no one have noticed before, the insolent looks that had become more of a habit then an emotion? But he'd like to see the master try and thwart him now. Now that he had so much power. "I do believe it's time we had a little chat."

"Not now Second. I'm angry. I wish to throw more things. How can that vile witch still escape me?" the master gave a nonchalant wave of his hand and reached for another plate. With an evil laugh, Zahib waved his hand, spoke a single word and had the pleasure of watching the plates scatter from the table and fall to the floor, the broken shards spiraling out in an intricate pattern.

"I don't believe that you will be throwing plates, for a very long time, Terry," he stood and slowly stalked to the man that had sat too long on a throne that he was no longer worthy of.

"How dare you take that tone with me Second! And you know that you shall address me as Master and only Master. I should have your head for that. Freknal!" he shouted, lifting up his hands and making a quick slicing motion where his hands passed over each other in the air. Zahib felt a slight tickle in his throat and laughed.

The hand motions were completely useless and had no meaning other then looking impressive. And that it failed miserably. Probably to lowly Bowers it looked amazing. But to Zahib who knew the truth, it was pathetic and pitiful.

He laughed once more as his hand grasped the hilt of the knife, not the same that had killed the witch's companion. She had kept that, and he liked to think that it was a token of himself for her to remember him by. And to find him by once more.

"Why… why didn't that work?" the master stuttered as the knife hissed, a sound that made the Zahib smile. He looked at the blade as it glinted in the light and then smiled, a strange, evil smile at the master.

"Haven't you figured it out yet, Terry? It's over. I'm Master now," he smiled again and used the glittering knife to slash through Terry's throat. As the man fell to the ground, Zahib kicked him in the shoulder, sending him falling backwards, sprawling on his back. Zahib knelt, his knee to the dieing man's throat, regardless of the blood that seeped into his clothes, and wrenched the man's mouth open. Using the glittering knife once more, he severed the man's tongue.

"Freecia!" he hissed and the tongue burst into the flame, reducing to ashes that Zahib blew into the man's face, as his last breath clogged in the bloody throat and he died.

"I'm Master now," Zahib hissed once more, his eyes glowing darkly, insanely. Then he laughed and sat himself down on the coveted thrown.

A/N Well there you go. Tell me if I cured my case of the bad writing. lol. Review me!

Nubia


	20. Chapter Nineteen

A/N Well... once again I'm sorry it took me so long to update. No excuse other then being lazy. ll. But yeah... this one I hope you like. I think I did pretty well... was having a brain wave. hehe.Also, before you get started, their will be a lot of changing of the point of veiw, but there aren't any times gaps between the page breaks. So thanks to...

demented-dreamer: You'll see what Derek can see in this one. ll. And Terry was in the story before. He was the all mighty "Master" to the bowers. Zahib using his real name was a great sign of disrespect. And thanks for reading.

Randomisation: Why, thank you. And I'm so glad you like my story.

Sammey: ll. Yeah... kinda gross, but very necessary (can't spell worth crap without spellcheck. ll). You'll see.

TPFreak: I do believe that was your first note, yes. But thank you for it. And I'm glad that you're enjoying the story.

Zerrin: I'm glad that I am cured. And nice dance. Haha!

Tattooed Goddess: I'm sorry if you were confused, but glad it's all cleared. If you have any questions, just ask! And thanks again for thepositivefeedbackand for reading.

cylobaby: Once more, I failed the ASAP part. But here you go. Sorry for the wait.

Chapter Nineteen:

As Tori stepped into the hall behind Derek she felt a breeze tangle her hair. She lifted a hand to settle it and felt another, stronger gust push against her stomach, making her bend over slightly. She frowned and straightened. Derek looked back when she cried out to see her, the wind blowing against her, dragging her sideways until her legs gave out and she fell to her knees, the wind flattening her to the ground. He rushed to her, but though he found himself kneeling beside her, he himself could feel no breeze at all.

She cried out again as a soft dust flew through the air and over her face. The wind forced the dust up her nose and as she breathed in to sneeze the dust clogged her nostrils and she realized it was ashes. She felt a presence slowly creeping it's way into her body, forcing its way in, sending bone chilling shivers down her spine. But there was only so much room in her body and with the new presence entering Tori was forced out. With a guttural cry she was pushed from her body out into the void. Her soul, her very essence, drifted away until she felt the void closing around her, squeezing her tight. She looked up and saw Derek as he knelt before her, but he was so far away, so very far away. She began to shiver as the cold seeped into her soul, began to weep as she felt the utter aloneness of the place that she had been forced to.

And she felt the fear. If she didn't get back to her body, the void would suck her in and Lee would have her body forever. She was sobbing and shaking as she forced herself towards the light, but she didn't have the strength, couldn't push herself out of the small hole where she was crammed, didn't know how to beat Lee out of her body.

She felt a sudden pain, sharp in her arms and with a great rush she was in her body, Derek holding her arms and staring into her eyes, concerned.

She buried her face in his chest and sobbed and shook, her body trembling like a leaf as she babbled. "She… she…" she stuttered and tried to force the words out, tried to explain. But the horror and fear was still clogging her throat. She had nearly died, had nearly been lost in the void that was the place souls were taken to in death. She had almost been lost forever.

"There now, Tori. It's alright," he whispered and gently pulled her away to stare at her pale face. She was shaking still and her eyes were wide and frightened. Something had just happened, he could tell. She had looked at him seconds before and her eyes had been so very different, cold, emotionless. Those eyes had burned him. They had been someone else's eyes. And when she had spoken, her voice had been dark, dangerous. She had said, "There is a new Master on the thrown. Time grows short."

Then he had watched as the cold eyes had widened and then gone completely blank, dead, lifeless. And then Tori had been there again. "What happened?"

"I… I… I don't know," she whispered, as her shaking started to recede. She did know though. Lee was dangerous. She had tried to take over her body, tried to force her soul out. She had forced Tori out of her own body, sent her soul adrift in a void. Tori knew she was very lucky to have made it back. Derek had saved her. He had gripped her arms until it hurt and the pain had brought her back.

She thought feverishly as she slowly made her way to her feet. Lee must have been able to force her soul out of her body, but she hadn't been able to sever the ties that bound Tori to her body. The pain had shivered across the bindings and brought her back to her body. She owed Derek her life.

Tori was still unsteady on her feet, but she eventually made it back to the barracks. She fell onto her bed, exhausted and breathing hard. She felt as if she had run for miles and miles, but she didn't want to sleep. If she slept, Lee would be in her dreams and if Lee was there, there was a chance that she would be forced from her body again. Back into that damnable void.

"Are you alright?" Derek whispered, kneeling by her bed, grabbing her hand. Like magic, she thought as she felt the energy rushing back into her. His touch was soothing her, making her safe. He made her safe, safe from Lee's power. She frowned at him, thinking. How was it possible? How could he make her safe when he had no magic of his own?

"I shall be fine, Derek. But please, if I make noise in my sleep, please wake me. Grab my hand and wake me," she whispered as her eyes fluttered closed. If he had saved her once and made her safe now, how could he not be capable of saving her again?

As she drifted into sleep, she curled onto her side, bringing Derek's hand to her cheek and resting it there. She sighed and relaxed. And fell into a dream.

* * *

_Lee cursed when she instead she wanted to sob and sat up in the bed, her husband's arm sliding down to rest over her hips. Husband, she thought, and scoffed. She hadn't even known his name until the ceremony, but she supposed that Kevin was a fitting name for a potential king of Tortall. And he was her husband now. _

_He had been quite surprised to find that his bride wasn't in fact a virgin. And now she knew that he would ask questions of her. But she wouldn't let him. She would escape him._

_As she tried to move away, Kevin's arm tightened on her hips and brought her back to him. She nearly moaned, but managed to hold it back. "I'd like to know what happened," he whispered and for a moment, she believed that she heard caring in his voice._

"_What is there to know?" she demanded and tried to escape him once more, but he wouldn't budge. He looked up at her with solemn blue eyes. Eyes that were kind and that made her want to trust him. But she remembered that first day when he had been cruel to her, had made her disgusted. Was that the true man? Or was the one before her true?_

"_I want to know what happened to you to scar you so badly," he whispered and sat up beside her. She stared up into his eyes and thought for just a second of telling him everything. After all, she had just been the most intimate you could possibly get with a person. What was the harm of sharing secrets long buried and supposedly long healed? But when that second passed, she shrugged and turned away._

"_It doesn't matter. It was a long time ago and now it is over. We must look ahead, not behind. I must plan. The journey to the enemy's city will be hard. Are you prepared?"_

_He stared down into her eyes so green, and she nearly melted the ice around her heart and told him. But she wouldn't let a face or a look do that. She had to be strong. People only served to hurt her and she was so tired of being hurt. She would never trust herself to another person. He would be a tool and that was all. And tools didn't have the power to hurt._

"_Yes, I'm ready."_

_She nodded and stood from the bed and dressed. It was morning and she needed to see to the council. She was slightly surprised when Kevin rose also, as if he meant to help her. But she knew it was for show. He didn't actually want to help, he only wanted her to trust him so he could betray her. She knew. And she wouldn't be fooled. Wouldn't be betrayed_

_Never again would she be betrayed.

* * *

_

Ciem sighed as he continued down the halls. He had probably apologized a thousand times to his father for thinking such terrible thoughts. But could he be blamed? He had been to young to remember that he had had a sister. And his parents should have told him the story before.

He could understand why they hadn't, though. It would have been hard for him to comprehend why he had a sister and yet never saw her, or knew her. And now it simply made him sad. To think, all these years, he had a sister that he didn't even know about. And then to find her again… well, that was pure luck! He sighed again and rounded a corner. He and Evie had decided on a search schedule and tomorrow they would be heading into the city. Evie remembered Torianna's presence and was certain she could pick it out of a crowd easily. If Torianna had been in the city at all, Evie would be able to find her.

Tomorrow they would be one step closer to finding his sister.

He frowned as he noticed a short blond man, boy really, and the commander of the special squad in the Own walking directly in front of him. He supposed his thoughts had kept him from noticing them before. But he was glad to see them. Derek had always been a friend, as were Derek's parents. "Derek!"

The two stopped, but only Derek turned. The boy seemed to have frozen in his tracks, but Ciem hardly looked to him as he engaged Derek in a conversation.

* * *

Tori turned with Derek when she heard the voice call her commander's name. She gasped when she saw the prince striding towards them. Her hands fluttered up and she had the fleeting thought of covering her face in her hands and running in the opposite direction as fast as she could. She couldn't be seeing him, not now! She had been having way to many close calls already. One more and she was afraid it would all come out. Besides, she was certain he would recognize her.

How many times had she looked in the mirror and seen how puny her disguise really was? Torick so closely resembled Torianna, one look at her and the prince would know who she was. She couldn't have that. Not with Derek right beside her.

Panic began to well, slowly rising in her throat until it chocked out all sound that would have escaped. Instead of covering her face, her hands settled around her throat and tried to coax out sound. Anything out. Not that making a sound would help her in any way, but her panicked mind didn't quite understand that.

What came out sounded like a strangled cat's meow. Ciem looked from Derek, stopping in mid-sentence, towards her, taking notice for the first time. She watched his eyes widen as he looked at her green eyes, at her face. At the expressions in them that he didn't understand.

"Torianna?" Ciem stared at her, but she just shook her head and started to back away. Her eyes were huge in her face and she looked like a scared, frightened little kid. "It's you!"

He rushed to Tori and grabbed her arms, lifting her off her feet until she was level with him, which was considerably higher up then she wished to be. She was shaking her head convulsively now. He looked happy to see her, ecstatic, but all she could feel was the crumbling all around her of everything that she had struggled so hard to preserve.

"No…" she whispered as her body went rigid as a board. She was not ready to give up, not ready to be found out, not ready for her last chance to allow Robert to rest in peace be taken from her. "No!"

She shouted the word and began to struggle like mad. Her feet kicking, her fists punching. One fist caught him in the nose and he reeled back as the cartilage collapsed and blood spurted, a wayward foot caught him hard in the crotch. The breath whooshed from him as he dropped her to her feet, as he fell to his knees holding himself. She felt a pang of guilt but then she saw Derek's face, saw the light dawning as everything clicked into place.

Oh Gods, she thought. He knew now. If he hadn't before, he did now. He knew that she was Torianna, _the_ Torianna. The one that had been found holding a bloodied knife over a dead body. The one that had been in the chapel and had been attacked. The one that was suspected of murder.

"I…I… I didn't kill him!" Tori shouted before turning on her heel and sprinting away. Derek, she could feel him right on her heels, was breathing fast and shouting for her to wait. It was over now. Her cover was blown and right when everything was so close to being finished. She had his name! She shouted through her mind as she ran, had a name and a face!

She turned a corner and came face to face with a man that she recognized. She skidded to a stop with a squeak as she stared up at the bandit leader. The one that had nearly killed her and then left her. The man that had had a familiar sword technique, yet she had been unable to remember where she had seen him. But now she did.

How could she forget his face? His gray eyes looked into her own with that same surprised curiosity and familiarity as she remembered. Only she hadn't been able to pin down that first time what the expressions were. Or where she had seen him before.

But she knew now.

"You!" she hissed, as she stared at him. "You're that bandit! And… and you're the one that trained Robert! What are you doing here?"

"Nathaniel," a voice rasped from behind the man. Tori side-stepped to see who the man was and felt that jolt deep in the pit of her stomach. As she stared at the wrinkled old man, who was so fragile and bent that it looked as if a light tap on the shoulder would knock him over, she felt that pull as if her soul was being sucked from her and Lee was taking her place with that same bone-chilling determination. Tori was once again being forced into the void with no knowledge as of how to get out on her own. And Derek wasn't there to save her.

She screamed loud and long as she looked into the man's gray eyes.

* * *

Derek stood disbelieving as the name washed over his ears. He knew that name. It brought back so many memories. Robert, in the tavern, with the girl, the argument, finding Robert dead in the alley with the retreating figure of the woman shadowed in the alley. But that couldn't be right. That couldn't be Tori…

But then he looked to her, standing beside him and heard her whisper the words that he had hoped wouldn't be there. The words that claimed she hadn't done it. He wanted to believe her. He would believe her, he knew it. If only she would tell him what really happened.

But so much of what she did made sense now. Everything in fact. He supposed he knew all her secrets now. Knew everything about her, all her sins, all her faults, even the fact that she could very likely have committed a murder. And still he found that he loved her. And he made himself believe that it was a love he would give a sister.

But then she was running from him, and she was scared. Of him. Of his reactions. Of what he'd do to her. Of the laws he'd be forced to uphold, even if it meant convicting her. And he didn't want that. He wanted her to trust him. Wanted her to love him too.

He chased her, one thought clear. He would catch her and offer his help to clear her name. How could he not? She couldn't possibly have done, there was no way. He had seen her face before, when she had spoken of Robert. She had looked so broken, so beaten, so utterly alone and sad. And he had seen her face when she spoke of Robert being hurt by bandits, which was surely an understatement, he had seen the heat in her eyes, the semi-truth that indeed it had been bandits, or possibly thieves. No, there was no way that she was guilty of murder. And he would see that everyone else believed it also.

He would protect her from slander, from harm, keep her safe until the truth was out and she wouldn't need his help any more. And she would love him for it. Like a brother of course, but still, love him. Yes, that was what he would do. He would keep her safe.

But seconds before he rounded the corner he heard her scream.

Panicking, he skidded around the corner and ran into her, as she stood stalk still, just around the corner. But something was wrong, something about her stance set him off. He turned her to face him, but it wasn't Tori that looked back at him.

"Get your hands off me pig!" the voice, a voice that wasn't Tori's but came from Tori's mouth. It was dark, husky, and so cold it made him shiver. No, this wasn't Tori. She would never have been capable of this ice. This was the voice of a woman jaded. "You dare touch your future queen?"

"Where's Tori?" he demanded gripping her arms hard. He was scared because he didn't understand what was happening, didn't understand how he could be looking at Tori's face, into her eyes, but seeing someone else, someone else entirely. Where was Tori? There was no place for her to go, no place she could have gone, and yet she _was_ gone.

"That twit?" the woman asked with true venom, icy daggers that condemned so very easily. "She's—" but then her eyes did that vague, dead thing that had happened the night before, her body went slack. And then he was staring once again into Tori's eyes, scared and wild in shades of brilliant emerald green.

* * *

Tori launched herself at Derek as she had the night before and shuddered as she breathed deep in his smell. The smell that was unique to him and to her, in the way that it was able to comfort her. Without a thought to what had transpired between them only moments before, of the secrets that had so recently been revealed, she wrapped her arms around him and clung.

"You saved me, again," she whispered gripping onto the shirt at his back. She didn't want to turn, didn't want to face the two people that were behind her. They had made Lee come out. And Lee didn't play nice. She made her leave her body, made her float in that black, cold, utterly lonely void.

But with Derek there, to save her, she thought she could manage it. She grabbed his hand, clenching it tight and turned to the two men. Nathaniel was watching her with that same expression, if slightly jolted. That same, curious surprise, as if she wasn't what he had expected and he wanted to understand why that was.

The real test, though, was looking at the old man. As her eyes settled on the bent form, she felt the tug in her stomach, but that was it. It was as if, by holding Derek's hand, he was keeping Lee at bay. Tori wondered why that was so, but didn't question it. She only knew that Derek was saving her, and he wasn't pulling away, wasn't giving her accusing looks. She knew she'd have to explain everything to him, soon. But the bent old man was stepping towards her.

"It's you," he whispered, stopping beside his brother, and leaning against him. Tori could see the resemblance in their faces and knew that they were indeed brothers. Plus, the younger man was holding him up with gentleness only a brother could express without embarrassment.

Seeing the connection and the love between them made a cord in her heart shiver painfully. She had had that once, with Robert. But now it was gone, and she had to move on. She pushed the thoughts away and listened because the old man was speaking once more, and she felt an urgency to listen to what he had to say.

"I've seen you so many times, in my visions. But to see you for real, it makes me so content, so whole. Come child, come and allow me to look closer. My eyes, they aren't what they used to be," he whispered and his voice rasped.

Maintaining the grip on Derek's hand, more for comfort now then for security, Tori walked slowly to the man. She could see his eyes, gray just like his brother's. But his eyes were foggy, clouded with something and she knew that soon he would be blind completely. She felt sadness in her heart, because she could feel this man. He was innocent of so many things, and so pure and sweet it made her want to weep. He didn't deserve to have something so precious as the simple ability to see things, things that could be so beautiful, taken from him.

Unconsciously, her free hand rose and smoothed itself across his cheek. She gasped in surprise at the sensation that tingled along her skin pleasantly and yet, ever so sadly at the same time, and felt herself sucked into another vision, only this one was different. This one was about the man before her.

A/N Well... there it was. And yes, I know, I'm evil. Another cliffhanger. So... you'll just have to keep reading to find out what happens next. A head's up though, the next chapter will be nearly all vision form, with very slight breaks. And I have a pretty strong feeling that it will be sad. So... yeah. Hope you liked this chapter. Review me!

Nubia


	21. Chapter Twenty

A/N Okay... once again, sorry it took so long. Took a while for me to write. Being lazy. lol. School starts in a week for me. So... things might get even slower. Just a head's up. Thanks to... demented-dreamer, Fantasylvr (maybe four), Randomisation (I'm glad he didn't freak out to), TPFreak, Mage Light, ... (Hehe I made that word up completely, just kinda making random sounds, so that's how I came up with it. And it doesn't have a real meaning cause I made it up. lol.), Fyr's shadow (the old guy is the Prophet from before), Zerrion of the Wind (Thank you thank you!), cloverluck11 (understood and I won't hold it against you if you don't review. lol.) Okay! On to the story!

Chapter Twenty:

_Tori stood off the side of the bed, watching as the woman labored to birth the baby. She gave a final agonized scream before falling back on the bed painting, her face dripping sweat. A baby's squall came next to her ears, almost as loud as the mother's scream had been._

"_Is it…?" she whispered, to exhausted to say more. The doctor lifted the babe into the nurse's arms and with two fingers pried open the baby's eyes. Tori came to stand beside the doctor and looked at the eyes. They were gray and clouded over. The eyes of someone who would go blind soon. She felt saddened at the thought that a child so new to life would go blind so soon._

"_Yes. He has the eyes of a prophet. Call in the Master. We must give the baby the right!" The nurse nodded and handed off the baby before striding out of the room. Tori felt a moment's confusion at the words—weren't they concerned about the baby being almost blind? — but soon was distracted._

_The woman in the bed sat up using her elbows as leverage, pushing the hair from her eyes with shaking hands. "Can I see my son? Can I?" she lifted out her arms for her son, but the doctor turned away and began to leave the room._

_Tori watched in horror as the woman struggled to get out of the bed, yelling after the doctor, "Give me my son! He's mine!" But she was to weak, to tired from that long labor, to leave the bed and eventually she sank back down and began to weep._

_Tori left the room to hurry after the doctor, tears in her own eyes. She knew, without a doubt, that that woman would never see her son again and felt a twist in her heart. It wasn't right for them to take away her son like that. They didn't even allow her to see the baby! But again she was distracted from her thoughts by what she saw._

_In the next room, the doctor had placed the child on a table and wrapped it in a blanket, leaving only its chest and head exposed. He was cleaning the thin, heaving chest with greenish water, and it was making the baby cry. Tori wanted to go to the child, to soothe him and push away the mean doctor. She felt a fierce protectiveness for the child and the kind of love one gave unselfishly to little children. As she was moving forwards to take the child away from the doctor and soothe it into a peaceful sleep, she was stopped in her tracks by something very unexpected._

_The door burst forth and a man strode in, a man that Tori had seen before. Not his face, for at the time it had been shrouded in shadows, but she recognized his body, the way he held himself. Yes… she knew this man. This was the Master. The Master that Zahib belonged to._

_As she said the words in her mind, she felt Lee dragging at her soul, trying to break free, but at the same time, she felt a presence around her hand. Derek's. He was still holding her hand and his very presence was a shield against Lee._

_She smiled and returned her eyes to the Master. He wasn't as handsome as she had thought he would be, for surely a Master would be handsome, or in some way spectacular. But in truth, he was really just very ordinary._

_He had brown eyes, the kind that one would expect to be gentle. But looking into them she saw that they weren't gentle at all. They were filled with a wild sort of danger and anger. An anger that couldn't be controlled easily and often times resulted in outbursts that hurt people._

_She wanted to cringe away from him but again she felt Derek's hand on her own and was given the strength to watch._

_Strutting across the room with a swagger to be envied the Master placed his hands on the baby's chest. As if by magic, the baby's squalls stopped and he lay still, looking up at the man._

_Tori nearly screamed when she saw a blinding green flash. She threw up her free arm to block her eyes as the light sizzled over her skin, burning it with the heat and intensity. The pain was sharp and intense, but very brief, lasted merely a second. But the memory of the pain was sharp enough to be remembered for a very long time. A long moment later, after the pain had faded she slowly lowered her hand to stare at the baby._

_His chest now had a symbol burned into the skin. It appeared to Tori to be a scribble, but she knew it must be something important for she felt Lee give another vicious and futile pull._

"_The Prophet is his name. And he will forever remain in my service," the Master hissed and swept from the room. With his absence came the baby's cries once more. But he would get no soothing. He was property to the Master, a Prophet. And Prophets didn't get comfort. They got training and a room all to themselves where they could have visions in peace._

_The scene before Tori's eyes began to fog until she could see nothing but the mists before her. Her breath slowed until it seemed she wasn't breathing at all, time stood utterly silent and still. Then it was gone, the mists had receded and she was standing in a room once more._

_This room was dusty and very dim, the only light available to her that of a lantern placed on a table that was crowded with bits of paper, forgotten quills and several bottles of ink._

_The walls were lined with ancient books, some so old they looked as if a single touch against their spine and they would crumble into dust and vanish in the wind. It was a very dreary, lonesome room and Tori didn't like it at all. She felt as if she was being closed in, as if the walls were pressing against her and she wished that the room were destroyed, that it had never come into existence._

_She liked it even less because a boy of little more then twelve was sitting in a chair at a large, dusty desk. From the looks of him, he hadn't seen the sun in years. He was pale and his cheeks hollow. He looked sickly and his gray eyes were still clouded over. He couldn't see properly, she was sure of it._

_But as she watched him, his eyes suddenly widened and for seconds, only seconds, his eyes were perfectly clear, the gray in them shinning so bright she nearly wept at the magnificence. They were the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen, all the more beautiful because she had loved the boy as a baby and she felt the love carry over to this boy._

_But even as she watched, the gray clouded once more and the beauty was blocked off, trapped within the eyes by the fog and hidden away._

_The boy bent over the book settled before him on the desk and he began to write, his shoulders hunched, the hand curved painfully tight around the quill. In the silence of the room, she heard only the scratching of the quill against the page._

_A curious frown marred her brow and she walked over to the boy, leaning over his shoulder to read the words that he had written. Looking at the open book she saw that it was composed of things written by his hand in a small, very neat print that was easy for her to read, the looping letters pleasing to her eyes. She wondered faintly as she began to read if he wrote all the books in the room. Surely he couldn't have for there were so many, but before she could complete the thought, her attention was captivated by what the little boy had written. _

The little boys play outside, the sun shinning on their heads, merriment in their eyes. But beware the evil that lurks close by for could be their death. Should one falter in the attempt to save, then all the boys will perish. But, should the hero be swift in his efforts, then the boys shall live to play again.

_Tori frowned, puzzled by what he had written. It didn't sound quite like a story because the wording wasn't really sentences and it certainly wasn't a piece of history. It was… well… it seemed to be a foreshadowing of the future. She frowned more when she heard the boy sigh and looked down at his bowed head. He had brown hair, very much like her own. She wanted to soothe her hand over his head and fight away the sorrow that nestled deep in his heart. A boy so innocent, so sweet, didn't deserve to be this sad. It wasn't right and it certainly wasn't fair._

"_Wish it were that I could play outside, safe or not," the boy whispered, so quiet she was certain that she had imagined it. She opened her mouth to ask him if he had indeed said that, but before she could speak she heard the sound of a door opening and turned to see a middle-aged woman with a mean face stepping into the room._

_The woman tried to smile, tried to look like she cared, but the dead look in her eyes made it unconvincing. "What was that Prophet?" she asked as she came striding across the room, her voice hard and demanding. Before Tori had a chance to move out of the way, the woman walked right into Tori._

_And continued out behind her as if Tori didn't really exist._

_Tori's hand began to quiver and she gasped in shock at the waves of sensations that washed over her. It chilled down her spine in deep shivers as she got an instant look inside the woman that had just passed through her._

_What she saw in that brief second was frightening. A wasteland of pestilence and disease with people committing unspoken sins on the ground, shrouded in the taint of green. And all had the mean woman's face. Tori gasped and shoved away the heinous visions. _

_It gave her a horrified and disgusted feeling to have been privy to that vision, as if her insides had been frozen by the woman's touch. She shivered and turned to see if the woman had seen inside Tori also, and if she found it as disgusting as Tori had. But the woman acted as if she didn't even realize that Tori existed._

_Tori frowned but soon it was forgotten because the boy was speaking. "I said, I wished I could be let outside. It's been so long since I've been able to be outside. Would it truly hurt for me to be outside? Even if it was only for a moment?"_

_The woman's face clouded over with a very dark scowl before she was smiling again and smoothing a hand over the boy's hair. He seemed to buy into the fake gesture because he smiled up at her with a so very pleasing look on his face and sighed in rapture._

"_You know that isn't allowed Prophet," her voice was once more cold. She obviously didn't like to interact with the child, least of all when he was being what she thought of as pesky. Tori wanted to smack her. He was only a child! A little boy! What was the harm of letting him outside? "You know that one slip of the mouth about a prophecy and the entire world could fall into destruction. You wouldn't want that to happen would you? You wouldn't want to be the cause of the end of the world, would you?" She demanded._

_The boy's eyes welled with hasty tears and he looked down, shaking his head sadly. "No…" he whispered and hunched his shoulders once more. "I wouldn't."_

"_Good. We'll have no more talk about going outside. Now, let me see what you have prophesied today, Prophet," she grabbed the book from the table and quickly read what he had wrote. She wasn't pleased. _

"_What is the meaning of this!" she demanded her voice fowl, her face red. She turned hastily to the boy and slammed the book upside his head, knocking him from the seat and onto the ground. Tori rushed forward to see to the boy's safety, but something held her away from them, away from the scene. "This isn't about the witch!" The woman screamed and hit the boy with the gigantic book once more._

_Fog began to swirl about the room again as Tori tried to reach out to the boy. He was crying and whimpering, trying to get away from the woman, sobbing out his apologies. "I don't care if you're sorry! What am I to say to the Master? What am I to tell him when you have prophesied nothing that can be of help?"_

_Their voices were growing faint as the fog swept into the room faster and faster and then she saw nothing, heard nothing and time stood still once more. Utterly still and silent. It was as if she existed only within her body, her shell and nowhere else. The world was nothing, nonexistent. Time was nothing, nonexistent. She was one and alone, with only the presence of Derek around her hand._

_And then the fog had lifted and she was standing in that same room, only it seemed to have grown dimmer, dustier, more oppressive. More terrible then it had been that unknowable time before. The Prophet sat at the desk, nearly seventeen now. He was even more hunched and more pale then before, if it were possible._

_Tori still felt the overwhelming urge to walk to him and fold him into her arms and rock away his pain. He was such a sad boy, so sad. She wanted to weep because she knew that there was nothing she could do to make him better, nothing to save him. She realized now that this was the past, his past, and no matter what she did, she couldn't change it. All she could do was observe and wish to the gods that he wasn't this sad now, that he wasn't this lonely. That there was a way for him to be happy._

_But as she watched, he began to moan and rock, his body shivering so hard that even his robes trembled. She nearly rushed to him to help him stay upright, but she realized that she wouldn't be able to touch him._

_With a harsh shout, the Prophet threw back his head and his eyes snapped open, wide, the gray magnificence blazing forth as he was held in that position, back bowed, mouth open as he saw things, so many things, that Tori would never be able to see._

_What seemed and eternity later his eyes softly closed and he fell gently back against the chair. His breathing was harsh, but the trembling had stopped. He looked down at his hands that still held a quill in the painful grip. The Prophet stared down at his book of prophecies, a book that he had written himself, spent uncounted years doing nothing but writing, for a master he had been given no choice as to whether he wanted to serve. He had been given a life of imprisonment simply because he could see things, things that would one day give an advantage to the Master that he hated but did not fear, that he served but held no love for. This was the crucial moment, the time where finally he had a change to break away._

_With a happy wheeze that was most likely the Prophet's laugh, he got up and went to the bookshelf, grabbing one from the bottom row. He opened it to a blank page, pen poised over the top, ink ready to be spilt onto the page in words that would never be given to the Master he didn't wish to serve._

_Tori walked to the Prophet's side and watched as he wrote very neatly on the top:_

The Prophecies of Princess Torianna

_Tori gasped and stepped away as the Prophet began a sketch under the title. She had seen enough to know that he had drawn a sketch that looked like her, exactly like her. With her eyes and her face and her expression. She rushed forward to look once more at the image but before she could see the fog settled around her once more and she was again locked in the timeless place.

* * *

_

"Princess?" Tori gasped as she stepped away from the Prophet, her hand still firmly clutched in Derek's. "What do you mean? Was that book of prophecies about me?"

The old bent Prophet smiled and leaned ever more heavily on his brother. The look on his face was one of the cat that swallowed the canary. He looked pleased and proud and she frowned at him.

"I see," the Prophet gasped in his hoarse voice as he smiled at Tori, "that Lee isn't the only one capable of receiving visions. I had thought that the visions explained in my prophecies had been brought forth by the witch, but I realize now that you simply inherited more power then I had assumed. Did you enjoy what you saw of me, my dear?"

Tori shook her head as she remembered what she had seen. "How could I? You were forced into this life Prophet, forced to be something that no one deserves to be. How could the Master do something like that? I thought he was cruel but I never thought he would go so far as to enslave a baby!"

"It is sad, yes. But you brought light to my life, Princess," he whispered and smiled at her. Tori blushed and looked down at her toes. Why was he calling her a princess? That didn't make sense to her. "You were my first love, my first secret, and I will be forever in your debt for the freedom you have granted me. You, my dear Princess, are the best vision a Prophet could ever receive."

Tori blushed again, but she had questions. "Why are you calling me a princess Prophet, for you are mistaken? If you had seen prophecies of me, surely you know that I am no such thing. A maid raised me remember? I was born into servitude and work. I am nothing but a companion to be bought for children. I insist you call me by name, Prophet. I am Torianna."

"You are the who is mistaken, your highness. You were not born into servitude, but into a life of luxury and bliss. And it was Nathan who stole you away and took you here to Tortall. For you see, the first branch of your prophecy was dangerous and in order for you to survive, you had to be taken away and disguised. Perhaps, I should start at the beginning, so you may understand it all."

Tori nodded her consent, but as the Prophet opened his mouth to speak Ciem flew around the corner and skidded to a halt inches before Tori.

"At last! I have caught up to you. Come. Mother and Father will be so happy to see you," Ciem grabbed her arm and began to drag her away. Derek calmly said Ciem's name.

"What Derek? Don't you realize who this is? This is my sister!" He shouted and broke into a crazy grin.

"What?" Torianna screeched, her face paling, mouth dropping open in awe.

"I think it best that I explain now. Prince Ciem, please be quiet and allow me to fully explain what has happened so that you both may understand and accept what has happened fully. Agreed?"

They both nodded and the Prophet opened his mouth to unfold the story, or prophecy, of a lifetime.

A/N There it was! Enjoy! Review me!

Nubia


	22. Chapter Twentyone

A/N Oh man. I'm sooooo sorry you guys! I can't believe it's been a month since my last update! I feel terrible leaving you guys hanging like that! So bad in fact, that I decided to give you guys another chapter. This one is really really short. But it is really informational. Kinda sorta. But yeah. Soooo sorry! Um... the next one may be out soon, or later. I don't know. I do have a free weekend coming up, finally. I swear... all my days have been so jam packed! I'm very ready for it to end. lol. So here you go! Lots of thanks to...

Mage Light: No need to apologize. It's quite alright. And I'm so glad you like.

FantasyLvr: Sooo sorry it took so long! But I'm so glad you like it.

demeanted-dreamer: thank you!

TPFreak: Well... on the plus side I'm really glad you like the story. But I'm so sorry it took so long.

Zerrion: Hope you enjoy even though it is short.

Chapter Twenty-One:

"As one has said before, appearances are often deceiving. I, Princess, am no older then the age of twenty four," he paused to allow for the gasps that escaped them all. He knew what they were thinking, for he had thought it himself, countless times in his so short life. How was it possible for a twenty four year old man to have the appearance of one that should be knocking on death's door? He could also see the deep sadness in Torianna's eyes. It was part of the reason she was so dear to him. Her complete and total empathy of others. "It is the prophecies that age me so, Princess. If not for them I would have the body of a normal man, the mind of one as well. But I would never give up what I have now for the same things as Prince Ciem, or Derek. Because I have something that none of them have, Princess. I have you.

"When I was seven, probably looking as if I was nearing sixteen or seventeen, I had a vision of you, my dear Princess. And you were the loveliest sight I had ever seen. You took my breath away, even though I barely caught a glimpse of you face. No… it wasn't the physical appearance that captured me, it was your heart, the one that you feel so clearly, and listen to so deeply, something that is so rare to find. You, Princess, have the biggest heart and purest soul that I had ever seen. And I loved you for it. In a world as dark and cruel as my own, I often sought out a gentle hand, feeling only those that were false and clinging to them. It was terrible thing that only made everything that much worse, but I never realized the hole I had dug myself into until I met you. Before, everyone had shoved me away, ignored me, even hated me. I was nothing to them and never would be anything. I was a slave, even less because I hadn't given myself willingly. But you… you who I had never been in the presence of, you were what I needed. And you gave yourself to me in visions.

"I loved you, from that first vision, like a mother, like a sister, like a friend. I loved you in every way possible. So… it's understandable that when I saw a shocking prophecy of your death to come when you were a mere eight, I naturally interfered. I had seen the consequences for both taking action, and allowing myself to sit back and watch. And I see that what I did was right. If I had allowed your destiny to continue without interfering, you, my dear Princess, would be dead. And the world as we know it would be much changed.

"When you were born, a great surge of power shivered across those that followed the Witch. And a great shiver of foreboding washed over those who Bow to the Master. They knew, instinctively from that one wave, that you were different. For thousands of years, sons and daughters born into the royal family had never had power like you. Even in your smallest finger do you carry more power then all of those before you combined. And those who Bow realized it. And they feared. The Master feared. Such a foreign thing to him, but he knows it for what it is. And he took action against it.

"Even as they commissioned an assassin to kill you, I planned. Nathan worked his wiles on a maid and while you were being put to rest on your first night, she took you away, into the city and gave you to Nathan. The ring that was given to you that night was a concealment ring made and used by none other then the Witch herself. It kept you hidden from those who Bow as you grew and learned, and it kept your powers dormant within your body. And when the time was right, and the things that belong to the Witch began to find their way to you, the spell faded. And you grew into what you had inherited from the Witch."

"But why me?" Tori broke in as the Prophet stopped for breath. "Why did I inherit all this power?"

"Because, Princess, you are the one thousandth girl born into the royal family. The one thousandth decedent of the Witch herself. And because of this, you were given her power, and a part of her as well. When the concealment spell faded, the Witch found her way into you and slowly worked her magic until she became a part of you, and was able to share her experiences with you. To prepare you."

"Prepare me for what?" Tori demanded in a loud voice, wishing that she understood. This seemed outrageous, preposterous! How could any of this be true?

"To finish what the Witch started thousands of years ago," the Prophet whispered, but Tori heard.It was more then just words. It was a Prophecy, spoken by a Prophet. And as the prophecey echoed across her skin, shefelt the shiver that started at her feet and worked slowly through her body until it resonated down her hand and caused her fingers to spasm. Her hand jerked loose from Derek's grip. Even as she heard him shout, she felt herself being sucked from her body.

But it wasn't like before, wasn't frightening. She didn't feel what she had felt before. Instead of feeling herself being forced from her body and out into the cold void of non-existence, she felt her body relaxing into a warmth that surrounded her. She felt her body whirling. But instead of fighting against it, she allowed the current causing her to spin to take her away, allowed everything to drain away from her until she was simply Tori, not a care in the world, utterly and completely relaxed.

She sighed and felt as if she had finally come home, it had been so long, so long since she felt this. Even before, when Robert had been alive, she had never felt quite like this. The closest she had ever gotten, was with... Derek.

When her body finally stopped moving, came to a gentle rest in a place where light was there and yet not, she didn't bother to open her eyes. She didn't need to. Here, she had everything in the world.

A sound broke her from her spell of serenity.

"Tori," a teasing laugh whispered along her skin, causing her to frown. She had heard that voice before. Who did it belong to? "Tori," this one came louder, clearer, closer. The knowledge was so close, so close to the surface. Who was speaking? "Tori!"

With a gasp, Tori opened her eyes and stared into entrancing green that mirrored her own. She looked at the face that belonged to the eyes, at the body. She was staring at herself. Only… different.

"Lee…"

A/N Man... you guys must hate me. So many cliffies. And such long pauses inbetween. I'm truly truly sorry! But I'll keep working! I swear! And it's almost finished, this story. Three maybe four chapters left is all! So yeah... review me please!

Nubia


	23. Chapter TwentyTwo

A/NI told you I would get it done over the weekend and so I have. Now... this one is much longer then the one before and it is very important as well. So... enjoy! And thanks too...

Zerrin: Yes well... hopefully the quality will stay the same even with the added length.

demeanted-dreamer: Will this make me less guilty?

okaliedokalie: I'm glad you like this one so much. And I thank you very much for thecompliment. If you like this story so much, you should read my other ones as well.

...: I hope I don't take as long either. I don't like making my readers wait. And plus, creative build up is very un-fun.

Randomisation: well... Lee is both. And you'll understand more in this chapter.

Tidsmagi: lol. Thanks for the compliment. I will be writing a story after this one. I'm debating between two different stories that I can write. One about a girl from the US who is brought to Tortall, but it has a completely different spin on it then most that you read like that. And the other is one about a girl who is forced into being a spy against Tortall. lol. And I'll probably end up writing both, but I'm debating which to write and post first. lol.

Chapter Twenty-Two:

The face, one that she had thought looked alarming like her own, crinkled into a smile, a smile filled with warmth and a gentle sense of love. The emotion that shone within the face that had once been so icily blank shocked Tori. Before, when Lee's face had been expressionless they had looked very similar, the absence of emotion the thing that kept their faces different. But now that her face was filled with emotion, they were perfectly identical.

What had happened to the cold, emotionless woman? The woman that hadn't ever shown a thing and had been literally a block of hostile ice? What had changed so fast, so very fast that it was almost inhuman? Was it even possible for a person to change their very nature in a few hours of time?

"Look closer, Tori and you will understand," Lee whispered and Tori did so. And as she looked she saw. The deep chestnut mane of hair that floated around her face so beautifully was now lined with gray. And the eyes that shown with such lighted emotions had wrinkles at the corners. She was… old.

"You grew up, Lee?" Tori whispered as her body trembled. This is what she would look like, she thought as she stared at her mirror image. This is how I will age as well. But… how was it possible for Lee to be a mere seventeen one day and then have gray hair and wrinkled eyes the next?

"I did grow up. In so many more ways then what appears before you now," Lee smiled again and Tori's breath whooshed from her. Lee had never smiled like that. And certainly not this often. What had happened to her? "So many ways Tori. And it took a long time to be what I am now. To be what I present before you."

"Have I… died?" Tori asked at last, realizing that Lee was obviously long dead, she was the thousandth decedent, so if Lee was standing before her, that meant she would have to be dead as well. But Lee's delighted laugh caused her to pause. Lee… laughing?

"No, Tori, you are not dead. I simply brought you to a place in between the worlds so I could show you what came to be between myself and the Master. And why there is indeed a country of my own, but a Master that still exists. You must be prepared when you face the Master, for surely you must before the past repeats itself. And you must not make the same mistakes as I did. Are you ready to see and to understand?"

Tori gulped and then nodded hastily. Before she even completed the nod she found herself falling into a vision.

* * *

_As she slipped into the chambers of the Master, she let her hand slip from Kevin's and felt the protection his touch had offered her die around her. She knew that she should have used it for as long as possible for she wanted every advantage over the Master as possible. But she would die before she allowed herself to trust him, only to find the trust to be misplaced and have him pull away from her when she needed him the most. She would die before she allowed herself to be betrayed again._

"_Lee…" Kevin hissed, holding out his hand for her to grab it again, but she didn't. She didn't let her eyes meet his, didn't allow herself to look at him, and even though she felt pain in her heart for what she next did, she turned her back on him._

_The monumental pain that crashed through her when she refused him, made her want to sob but instead she whispered the words. "Kiena, Mumina, Slicia!" She smashed her away over to the Master's thrown, allowing her eyes to adjust to the dimness in the room._

_In her hands appeared a shield and a knife, the weapons her magic had created for her. And in the sheath her sword's blade flashed, it's edges becoming sharp enough to pierce through anything._

_But as she approached the thrown she realized it was empty. She had walked into the room and obviously her enemy had been expecting her when she thought she had had the element of surprise. Now she had one less advantage against her enemy, one less advantage to winning her revenge._

"_LEE!" The shout resonated behind her and she felt the power of fear in her husband's voice. The one that she refused to trust. Instead of turning as she knew that he had wanted her to do, she acted the fool and continued ahead to the throne. She would use it as her main defense, even if the enemy was standing right behind her, as surely he was._

_But before she got to the throne and the relative safety of cover she feltan arrow plunging through her left shoulder and thudding deep into the bone. _As if in a separate world, Tori felt the pain as well.

_She spun and with a deathly precision hurled the knife in the direction of the arrow, whispering the words to make its aim true, "Dilato." She heard the grunt of pain, proof of the strike, and called the knife to her hand once more._

"_You're a deadly little wench, you know," the Master hissed and his voice washed over her like ethereal pain. They're magic chemistry's, so prominent, so strong it came through in their voices, were so volatile when mixed that it was frightening._

"_So I've been told, maggot. When will you give up? You're death only becomes more relishing the longer you fight it!" Lee hissed and laughed when she heard his grunt of pain. Two could play this game of voices. And hers was all the more painful to him because of the emotions, the hatred that she forced into it. And she had emotions, so many, built up and hidden for so many years. And now they had a purpose, one that she loved more then anything. Now they hurt him, wounded him as they had wounded her so many times. And no one would come to his rescue or comfort as no one had come to hers. The thoughts made her laughter that much darker._

_As she felt him cowering away from her, strength flooded through her body. This is what she had been dreaming of for so very long. This was her independence, her freedom. Her revenge!_

"_Come out and fight me, coward! I'll kill you none the less!" Her sword hissed as she brought it from the sheath, death given a voice. She smiled as she felt the power shiver through the air and followed the path it took, leading her to the Master. A Master now, but not for much more. Soon it would be over._

_She laughed when she saw him cowering in the corner, all the more when she saw him cringe at the deep, dark laughter that hit at him. Never before had she felt this powerful, and truly she was. She was so much more powerful then he and she knew that they both realized that. And it empowered her to know that even as he struck uselessly against her, his fate had been spelt out for him. He could not defeat her. She was destined to win._

"_Time to die," she hissed and swung the sword, but as it came to a rest against his neck, slicing through, she saw something that she had thought impossible. An ethereal mist rose from the tear her sword had left in his body, floating slowly up towards the ceiling. But as she went to reach for it, for she knew what it was, it hit her skin and passed through. And one thought was clear in her mind as it rejected her._

"You who do not love, and do not trust cannot complete what you have sought so long to do."

_No! Her mind raged as she tried again and again to grab at the mist, grab at what had come from the Master's body, grab at the power that had opposed her for so long. But she couldn't. It was denied to her, and she knew that it was._

_Because she had allowed herself to dwell far to long in the past. She had allowed her life to slip away from her. It hit her full force as the spirit of power that was the Master slowly disappeared. With a disgusted noise she looked down at her body, expecting to see the things that she hated the most. How had she become like this? So cold? So alone? So afraid to live her life in the present?_

_Her wide, tear filled eyes looked to the man that was approaching her. Her husband. Kevin. The man that loved her and had probably loved her since the day they had meet. The man that had given everything away to have her. To love her and be with her. He had married her and he had hardly known her. And she had treated him like dirt._

_Slowly a tear leaked from her eye as self-loathing filled her. She had killed the Master, the enemy, the man that she hated. But in doing so, what had she created but something that she could hate even more? She was pathetic, weak, nothing but a sniveling little child. And in the end it hadn't mattered. Because she hadn't had the strength to finish him off. She might have killed the body that housed the spirit of the Master. But now he was free to wander the skies until he found another willing body to take him in._

_She had failed._

_And now she had nothing left but her hatred. Her hatred of her self._

_Her knees slowly gave way and she sunk to the floor as tear after silent tear made a lonesome trek down her face. Her world was slowly going black around her as she realized that she had nothing left and that she had failed in her life's mission. She curled into a ball on the floor and resolutely waited for herself to die._

_Closing her eyes, she was encased in darkness._

_But then, as she lay there, ready and fully willing to die, something happened. Something she would never have expected. Two strong arms wrapped around her and slowly lifted her up. Two warm hands settled on her back and rubbed, soothing away the pain. One gentle voice, warm and close to her ear, breathed its breath along her skin as it whispered to her that everything would be all right._

_And one man held her close and rocked her as she cried. And as she slowly shifted the purpose of her life until it centered on him and what he was saying to her. What he was saying about their country and their future children and the good that they would bring to the world. And then there were the words, the words that would change her forever._

"_I love you, Lee," he whispered against her skin and kissed her gently on the forehead. She looked up into his eyes and saw that he meant it and for once, she didn't cling to the past, her past betrayals. For once she allowed herself to believe in what he said and what she felt when he said it. And for once, she didn't feel despair. Instead, she felt the overwhelming urge to smile. And so, she did._

"_What now, Lee?" Kevin whispered as they sat together, wrapped around each other, on the floor of her enemies throne room. "He got away, didn't he?"_

"_Yes. He got away. But it doesn't matter now. I have everything I need. A country to rule. People to give freedom to. And a husband to love," she whispered the last, still uncertain of her new found feelings. It seemed so strange to her, to not have to ice everything over. To not **be **ice. Instead, she had become fire, one that burned strong and uncertain._

"_But what if he comes back?" Kevin asked._

"_He will come back, as surely as we sit here and breathe. But there will be someone else, a decedent perhaps, who will be strong enough to defeat him. Until then, I will conceal the power that causes so much trouble," she looked down at her hand, at the ring that she wore. That had once symbolized so much and was now nothing but a dark reminder of what she had been. And was likely to be still. Nothing could change in just a moment. She would have to work at it. And this would start it._

_Slipping the ring from her finger she whispered the words, ones that came to her naturally. And sealed it with a kiss from her lips. Then she slipped it around her neck on a chain that held her wedding ring, and felt the knowledge of power drain from her._

"_Let's return home, husband. We have much to do to restore Serinda to its rightful power.

* * *

_

"Do you understand now, what you must do?" Lee asked as Tori blinked her eyes and focused on the older version of herself. She could but stare as a great understanding became to formulate in her mind. So much… she thought, so muchLee had to go through to become what she was today. So strong of a person. She wondered if she could ever be as strong as Lee.

"That and more. You are so much stronger then me, Tori. So much better. You too have been betrayed, though you don't realize. And still you don't let it effect you. You great each day with a happiness and a deep under laying sense of determination. And your heart, Tori. It beats so strong, so full of love. Even when you have no one to give that love to, you always have it. It is I who envy you your strength Tori. And it is I who give you the task of defeating the Master for good. For surely you can do it."

"Do you believe that, Lee?" Tori whispered, staring at the woman.

"Of course I do, dear. Of course I do," she smiled and smoothed a hand along Tori's face. Her smile changed into a wistful one and she let out an involuntary sigh. "You are the greatest gift a mother could ask for and I am sorry that this task has taken you away from yours. But I have always watched out for you, even if it was my younger self that did most of the watching. But know this Tori, your mother will greet you with open arms. Do the same."

Tori felt a tugging in her stomach and knew she was being called back into her body, into the world that she belonged in. But she didn't want to go. Suddenly she had an ominous feeling.

"I won't see you again will I?" Tori demanded as the world around her began to grow fainter and fainter. It was becoming harder and harder to see and Lee was almost only a blur.

"Yes, Tori. This is the last you will see of me. But I give you one last parting piece of advice. The power of words is nothing compared to the gift that has been given to you. Goodbye Tori," Lee brought a hand to her mouth and kissed it before blowing the kiss to Tori.

"Wait… Lee! LEE!" Tori screamed, fighting against the pull that was growing stronger and stronger. "Wait! Don't leave me Lee! Don't!"

A voice drifted across her senses as her vision gave way into black, a voice deep and masculine and filled with love. "Come, Lee dear. It is time for us to settle."

"Coming dear," this was also filled with love, and Tori knew if she could see Lee's smile now it would be the brightest one of all. Then Tori was gone, floating away, spinning faster and faster and faster. And then it stopped.

* * *

Derek grabbed onto Tori's body as it collapsed. He knelt on the ground, her head in his lap and gently tapped her cheek. But she didn't respond. He wanted to panic, wanted to shake her and scream at her and demand of her to wake up. He didn't understand what had just happened and he didn't like that Tori wasn't waking. It scared him, scared him because she could be dead.

"Tori," he whispered and giving in, stroked the hair of her wig. He would like to take the wig off and stroke her real hair, now that he knew who she was, but he wouldn't do that. He would wait for her to wake before asking her to give up the silly disguise. And surely it was silly, for now that he knew who she really was he could see what a terrible disguise it was. "Wake up, Tori."

"It is best, young sir, that you allow her to remain undisturbed," the old voice rasped beside him. He turned his head up and to the side to look at the old Prophet.

When their eyes meet, he heard the Prophet hiss. "I knew I recognized you, boy. You are the one who intruded. The one who intruded into the prophecy. But I see now, why you were chosen. You are the right one."

Derek frowned, puzzled at the words. What did he mean? What prophesy? The one that involved Tori? But before he could ask the questions Tori stirred in his lap. He turned back to her and watched as her eyes fluttered open. But they weren't her eyes. They were some one else's.

"Where's Tori!" Derek demanded.

"She is safe. Rest easy, young one. I must tell you, you must beware of her. She comes upon a struggle soon. And though she may be the strongest person you know, even she can't do everything by herself. Please, be there for her," the woman gave him a solemn look and he shuddered. Where was Tori?

The woman in his lap hissed slightly and he saw her flinch, almost as if inpain,but then she was turning her head and staring at the prophet.

"Prophet," she said the name softly, and Derek heard the Prophet groan, and this he knew was from pain. "I thank you for all that you have done. Soon it will be over."

"You're welcome. Witch," he said the name and then gave a deep, rasping laugh. Derek felt the body go lax and looked to see that her eyes were closed.

"What was that?" Derek demanded, staring down at Tori's body. He wanted her back and soon. He didn't like that she wasn't there. He wanted her with him. Always… but only as a sister he hurriedly added in his head.

"That, boy, was the Witch. She gave you sound advice she did. Always was smart, I knew," he rasped out another laugh.

"Derek?" a voice whispered and he looked down to see Tori staring at him. And it was Tori this time. He could see it in her eyes, her beautiful green eyes. He gave a happy smile and hugged her close, her head fitting under his shoulder neatly. Who was to know if he breathed in deep the scent of her hair?

"Are you alright Torianna?" Derek whispered as he gathered her closer in his arms. She just felt so right there, like she had been made to be there.

"Lee's gone, Derek. She's gone for good," her voice was small as she huddled closer to his body, for a moment unbothered by the troubles that would soon come crashing down.

"Where did she go?" He asked, trying to soothe her. He could feel hot tears soaking through his shirt. It was the first time he had seen Tori cry, he was certain. And now that he thought about it, it was shocking that she hadn't before. Her life was so hard, he knew. To go this long… Lee had been right. She was a very strong person.

"She went back to her husband. She's gone," she whispered the last bit and then pulled away from him, wiping her eyes to dry them. As she moved her shoulder she winced. He saw and turned her slightly to look. There was blood on the back of her shirt.

Without hesitation he pulled down her shirt to see a newly formed scar on her shoulder. He touched her shoulder and she winced again then stilled. A scar. On her shoulder blade. She thought back to the last vision and realized that the pain she had felt when Lee had been shot was real. A last parting gift from her.

"Where did this come from?" Derek demanded. But Tori only smiled.

"Come, there is much to do in preparation for the Master," Tori said and began to rise. It was natural to slip her hand into Derek's.

"Who's the Master?" Came a voice from beside her. Startled she turned to Ciem and the Prophet and realized that it wasn't just she and Derek. She blushed slightly, also realizing that this was her brother. How awkward. But she had to start somewhere.

"Come with me and I shall explain it all to you. And our parents."

A/N Well... there you go. Hope you likey! Now... I sleep! Review me!

Nubia


	24. Chapter Twenty Three

A/N Soooooooo sorry it took so long! I wasn't entirely comfortable with part of the story so I wasn't doing the very best of writing and I didn't have motivation to do it right, so I avoided it. lol. I'm so bad. lol. But anyways! Here it is! Hope you like it! Only about two more chapters to go and hopefully they won't take as long to get out. And I'm to lazy to do individual thanks so thanks to all of you who reviewed, you know who you are! And for those of you who read but didn't review, thanks for reading but review this time!

Chapter Twenty-Three:

"So basically, the Master, who is nearly two thousand years old by your calculations, has once again risen and is planning to repeat history by taking over Tortall and you are the only one who is able to stop him because of a magic that runs through your blood and is stronger then any one else ever before because you are the one thousandth descendant of the woman who started it all who happens to look exactly like you?" Burdock demanded all in one breath. Tori stopped to repeat in her head what he had told her and nodded sharply once.

"That is indeed correct," she whispered, looking down at her toes. It was hard to look at the man that was suddenly her father. A few weeks ago, when she had met the royal family from Serinda for the first time, she had been rude, defiant and not at all cooperative. And now she stood before them, there daughter.

"Well then, we have only one thing to say," Novellee whispered quietly, her voice demanding that Tori look at her. She looked at her through her lashes, a shy blush on her face. It was so hard to look at her now knowing that when they had first met Tori had hated her. Hated her more then she had hated anyone in her entire life, because she had thought that she was Lee's mother. And when she had been informed that she wasn't Lee's mother, she hadn't stopped hating her. She had simply let the hatred lie because she hadn't the strength to hate her on her own. And now she was facing this woman again, only this time it was with the knowledge that she was her mother. "Welcome back to us, my daughter."

Novellee spread her arms, and her gray eyes began to fill with tears. Even though Tori felt an almost overwhelming uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach, she walked into her mother's arms, hearing Lee's words playing over in her head. "_But know this Tori, your mother will greet you with open arms. Do the same_."

As Novellee's arms closed around her she felt herself tense up. And the tenser she became to harder Novellee squeezed until she thought she would be crushed in her arms, leaning nearly her entire weight on Tori. It wasn't until she felt the shaking shoulders of the woman holding her that she realized she was weeping.

Panic filled her as she stared at Burdock with huge, frightened eyes, unsure of how to act or what to do. Should she soothe her? Tell her that everything was okay and fill her voice with fake sincerity? Her green eyes begged Burdock to help her, to tell her what to do. But instead he quietly motioned for the room to be emptied, leaving her alone with the weeping woman.

"Why don't you trust me?" Novellee sobbed when they were alone. "Is it because of how I treated you that day? When we were together in Pirate's Swoop? I didn't mean to be terrible to you! I just was so worried about my son! I had lost you, I couldn't lose him also!"

"No… that's… that's not why…" Tori whispered feeling terrible, and guilty and entirely unsure of herself and the situation. What did one do in a situation like this?

"Is it because you have a mother already? A good one who loves you dearly and who you love just as much? Is it because you don't have any room in your heart for me?" Novellee wailed, her voice screeching in Tori's ear. She winced and quickly shook her head.

"No… I never had a mother… or a real family. Robert was my only friend. And he's dead now. And my heart has plenty of room for you, it's just…" Tori trailed off, unable to find words that described what she felt. She didn't even believe there were words to describe this.

"Then what is it?" Novellee screeched again, her voice high pitched and nasally. Tori winced again as the sound rang through her ear. If she had known that her mother would be such a problem then she wouldn't have even bothered. But that thought made her feel even more guilty and very much in the need of a hug.

"It's me. I'm not used to having someone so close to me, touch me, show affection. Robert was never like that with me, ever. It was an unspoken affection, never demonstrated with hugs and things. And Derek… well, who knows with that. I'm just not used to it, is all," Tori finally whispered.

To her utter surprise, Novellee pulled back and smiled, her perfectly dry cheeks curving. "Well, if that's all, I'm sure we can break you of that habit. I'm sorry if I screeched to loud, but I had to do something to make you loosen up. How about a real hug this time? Promise no crying!"

Tori stared gape mouthed at Novellee. That… that… she hadn't been crying at all! Her mind stumbled over the trickery until she realized that she had been perfectly deserving. Then she laughed and opened her arms. With a tinkling laugh that sounded very much the same as Tori's Novellee swept her into her arms and kissed the top of her dark head.

"You, my dear, are a wonderful daughter and I can't wait to get to know you. Now, hurry up and go find Derek. You need to make plans for how you want to handle the situation with the Master. See you for dinner?"

Tori nodded absently, slightly shell-shocked at how easily Novellee had accepted her into the family. It was as if the past eighteen or so years had been spent together. Like they had never been apart. And because of that it made it that much easier for Tori to slip into the family, to slip into the feeling of belonging to a family.

Grinning now, Tori skipped from the room, stopping in the hall to peck Burdock on the cheek most naturally, and off down the hall to find Derek. Suddenly she had the urge to tell him all about her day. She had never been big on sharing, but something inside her wanted to share and she had a feeling that Derek would want to listen.

* * *

Derek held onto Tori's hand as she practiced her magic. It was quite fascinating the way everything worked. Just a simple word and she could have nearly anything she wanted. With a bit more teaching it was likely that she could have anything she wanted.

And when he was touching her hand as she spoke those words of power, he felt the power surge through him, like a tidal wave, gathering power as it swept all down his body and then back out through there joined hands. He wondered if Tori could feel it too, and from the expression on her face the first time she had tried it, he guessed that she had. But maybe she was used to it by now, for nothing but concentration showed on her face. But to him, he still felt it every time.

Currently Tori was calling forth different weapons and saying the words to make her weapons do different things. They hadn't attempted to rock travel yet because Derek was afraid it would make him sick. But he realized that no matter what he would do it. It was quickly becoming clear to him that if Tori asked, he would do it. He would do anything at all for her. Because he loved her.

As a sister of course! He rushed to remind himself. He loved her only as a sister. And if, at odd times he found himself thinking of her beautiful face it was only because he wanted to remember how healthy she looked to make sure to know if she was ever feeling sick.

And if his heart raced just a little bit faster when he was touching her hand, it was only because it was filling with the love he felt towards the girl he considered his sister. And if his pulse jumped every time she smiled at him it was only because he wanted her to be happy, not because he knew that it was him making her smile and he wanted to be the reason she smiled. And if he stayed up at night dreaming of her, thinking of their life together, he was never imaging him holding her close as there children played around the yard with wooden sticks, or of him teaching their fierce green-eyed sons to wield swords while she taught their soft brown angel-haired girls to bake. No, he never dreamed of that, because he loved her as a sister and it was inappropriate for him to want to love her any other way.

"What are you thinking about?" Tori's voice startled him from his thoughts. He knew it was Tori, he had memorized her voice, memorized every tone, every pitch, every sound that left her throat so he could always know what she was feeling. But only because he had a brotherly concern for her happiness.

"Nothing important, Tori," He told her with a soft smile and gently squeezed her hand. Her smile widened at that and as always he felt that little jump in his pulse as he noticed how her smile seemed to light up her face and make her ten times more beautiful.

"Are you ready to try the rocks out? I've set up a base rock not far away," she gave him a sweet smile, she always seemed to be smiling at him lately. She had changed so much since the secret that she was a woman had come out. He believed it was because she wasn't feeling so guilty about lying to him. But he liked to think it was because he was healthy for her.

"If you are, then I am," Derek told her, continuing to hold her hand. Earlier, after her final vision with Lee, Tori had explained how during the final battle with Lee, Lee had let go of her husband's hand, how she had turned away from the strength he had given her.

She had soon realized that Derek was giving her his strength because he had been able to hold Lee away from her, while she by herself hadn't been able to. And in the vision, Tori had told Derek how Lee had been able to destroy the Master's body, but not his soul. She had confided in him that she believed that alone, Lee would never have been strong enough to completely destroy the Master because she had been missing, or denying, the true key to the power and, ultimately, the destruction of the Master.

What that key element was, Derek had no idea because Tori had refused to tell him. She had said quite plainly that if she had to figure it out by herself so did Derek. He had chuckled and ruffled her hair. One of the things about Tori that had changed for the better, for certainly she had changed very much during the last few days of intense training with him and her family, was that she was much more open and much more herself.

Much of her guilt had been lifted. And when she realized that no one blamed her for Robert's death even more had come away until she was nearly herself again. There was still the slight problem of destroying the Master before he repeated history and took over Tortall. But he thought she would be able to handle that stress.

"Okay, then. Here we go! Sheshmaru!" She shouted and almost immediately he felt that huge rush of power and even before it had even left him he felt as if a hook was being driven into his belly and yanking him forward.

He thought he screamed and maybe he did, but sound had deserted him, as had light as had any sense of feeling at all. It was like he was dead, senseless floating in a void and in the time it took to blink his eyes his feet were hitting the ground. His balance fled and with a grunt he knocked into Tori who collapsed under his unexpected weight.

They crashed into the ground with Derek lying on top of a thoroughly winded Tori. He rested his head against he shoulder, panting as the world spun around him and the feeling of power rushing through him dwindled to a stop.

"Next time…" he huffed, still resting against her, to comfortable to care that it was improper. "Warn me." He was quite shocked when he heard, or more accurately felt, Tori giggle. "It isn't funny." He insisted but Tori only laugh all the harder. "Why you!"

With a squeal, Tori tried to escape Derek's suddenly tickling hands. She laughed and squirmed and Derek forgot for just a moment that he was supposed to love her only as a sister, and not as the woman that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. With warm, sparkling eyes, he looked up into her dazzling green and felt his heart stop. She looked perfect in that moment and he knew, then, without a doubt that he didn't just love her. He was in love with her.

But then he heard a cough and Tori looked to the source, breaking the moment and the feelings inside him were pushed away, the love he felt for her was altered and he made himself believe once more that she was only a sister to him.

With a quiet sigh he turned and smiled up at Ciem, grabbing Tori's hand as had become his habit. He couldn't protect her if he wasn't touching her, so Tori had told him. And he would use that excuse for as long as possible, so he could touch her and continue to lie to himself about his reasons for wanting to.

* * *

"Mother wants you, Tori. She wants to discuss the plans for getting into the Master's quarters. Need me to walk you?" Tori let out a little sigh and started to shake her head no. She enjoyed having a family, now that she had become used to the easy affection between everyone and they way that it was so openly expressed.

But she hated the way everyone hovered over her. She knew that it was because she was in a continuously dangerous situation with the Master, but still it irked her. She was capable of taking care of herself, wasn't she? She had been capable of it for many years, hadn't she? A woman who disguised herself as a man and withstood the challenges of being a man of the Own was obviously capable of taking care of herself. So why did they feel the need to hover over her so closely?

Immediately she felt guilty again, an emotion that she was quickly becoming used to. It seemed that she was always feeling guilt for her thoughts because she was always thinking like an ungrateful git. Here she had just been given back her family and already she was sick of their hovering ways. But what else could she feel? She knew that she wasn't in any danger at the moment. She knew that no one would be coming for her, that the Master would wait for her to come to him.

Not that any one else would understand that. It wasn't like the Master had come right out and told her this. It was just a feeling that she had deep down in her gut, a feeling that she knew was right. But how to make them understand? There wasn't a way to make them understand. So instead, Tori suffered through it and allowed her family to hover.

"That's not necessary Ciem. I'll take Tori," Derek called softly from beside her. She felt his hand squeeze hers, once, reassuringly, and she turned to him and smiled gratefully.

Ciem nodded and moved away, glancing over his shoulder at them more then once. Tori giggled again. Another thing that she had noticed was that Ciem had taken his brotherly protection duties very seriously. He had been friends with Derek before, but now that he realized something was going on between them, he was watching them both extra carefully, and glaring at Derek like he had done something wrong.

Tori sighed and climbed to her feet. Not that anything other then holding hands was going on. As far as Tori could tell Derek thought of her as his sister. He smiled at her, sure, but it was just a smile that he would give a friend. And yes he was holding her hand, but that was simply because he was protecting her.

Her heart gave a pained pull and she tugged her hand out of Derek's for a second to push her hair out of her face. But she was just using that as an excuse to not touch him, afraid that somehow her feelings would be betrayed through their connection.

A gust of wind blew suddenly, whipping her hair back from her face, screaming as it rushed past her ears. Her nostrils filled with the burning smell of ashes and, oddly, vanilla. It clogged up her senses forcing their way through her head into her brain.

_A vision of a thrown room dimly lit with flickering torches forced its way into her mind. She saw a man, a man dark as night sitting on the thrown, the only feature she could make out the whites of his eyes as he stared at her, straight at her, seeing her, actually seeing her._

_Spread around him on the floor were people, hundreds upon hundreds of people, down on their knees before him. Bowing. Bowing to him. Him. The Master._

"_Come to me, Torianna. Come to me now," he hissed, his voice shivering over her skin. She trembled and tried to force the vision away, tried to reach for the strength that Derek gave her. But Derek wasn't there._

_She felt a sob catch in her throat cutting off her air and she tried to scream but no sound came out just as no air came in. She was caught, suffocating, her last image would be of this horrible creature staring at her. Seeing her!_

"_Come to me. Come to me. COME TO ME!" He screamed the last, his voice thundering over her, so loud she thought her ears would bleed. He rose from this thrown, running for her, running right at her. He would hit her and she would burst because he was poison to her._

_She tried to scream tried to speak out! He was coming, so close. So close! Right there, shouting, screaming her name! He reached out, reached out to touch her skin and surely it would burn, burn like nothing before, and she was terrified, trying to sob if only she could catch her breath, if only she could breathe!_

_His hand, his hand so close, nearly touching her. Time for only one last though. Derek._

"TORI!" the trance broke as Derek's arms folded around her, dragging her to his body. She sucked in a breath and let it back out in a wrenching sob. So close, she shuddered as she though, so close to dying. What would have happened if he had touched her? Would she have died? Or would it have only been a dream? But it hadn't felt like a dream. It had felt real, all to real. With another sob she wrapped her arms around Derek's waist and buried close to him, pressing herself against him, wanting to be as close to him as possible, if only to make him chase away that evil man. He made her safe and she wanted desperately in that moment to be safe.

"Oh Derek," she whispered as the tears stopped but she continued to shudder. She hadn't realized before but she was shaking, so badly she knew that if she were to let go of Derek she would fall.

"Shh…" Derek soothed, running a hand down her hair and kissing the top of her head. "It's alright. I'm here. You're safe."

She knew that, knew that what he said was true. And simply being able to believe in what he said helped her calm down enough to relax the death grip she had had on him. But she didn't pull away from him. She didn't want to.

She lifted her head to stare up into his eyes and whispered to him, "He wants me to go to him. The Master. I have to go to him. Today. Please, Derek. Please come with me."

Looking down into her green eyes, his own unreadable he whispered back. "I will. I'll go with you always."

A/N There you are! Hope you enjoyed! Review me!

Nubia


	25. Chapter Twenty Four

A/N Here you go!

Chapter Twenty-Four:

Tori slunk into the darkened chamber, Derek's hand grasped firmly in her own. Her heart was pounding, heavy, hard thuds in her chest and she wondered that her whole frame didn't move with the beats.

She looked to the throne and saw a shadow that had the shape of a man and wondered if that was the Master. But she knew that what she saw couldn't be trusted. Like herself, the Master had power to, power that she didn't know the limitations of. He could do anything.

"Be careful," Derek whispered as he kept his body close to hers, hoping to act as a shield for her. He loved her—like a sister— and he didn't want her to be hurt in any way. If he could spare her any pain, even if he had to feel the pain himself, he wanted to do it. For her, to show her what she meant to him.

"Don't worry," Tori whispered back and squeezed his hand briefly before stepping further into the room. She wouldn't falter, like Lee had. She wouldn't let go of Derek's hand. She would trust in him.

"How sweet!" a syrupy voice gushed from the shadows in the left corner of the room. Her eyes darted there and she saw a slight flame slowly burn into life, illuminating the face of the Master. The face of the man that had killed her brother and started her on this long journey.

Memories flashed before her eyes as she looked into the black orbs of the one that she had hunted for so long—_Robert staring at her, love in his eyes. The Master and his companion stepping from the shadows. Robert, his eyes pleading, his dieing breathe speaking her name. And then of the Master again, kneeling over Robert's body, speaking of him as if he was no more then a meaningless corpse._

The sing of revenge surged through her veins. Her free hand clenched as the words she would use to conquer formed on her lips. She didn't doubt that she would find the strength to say the words to kill this man she had come to hate. If it had been any other person, she would have hesitated at such a blatant murder. But for Robert's soul, she would do this.

"But will it be enough? Come Tori. Do you really believe this brotherly/sisterly act will work?" He laughed and stepped forward, the bow rising and aiming straight at her heart.

Derek shouted and jerked her to the side by her hand even as she screamed "Mumina! Dilato!" and the knife sizzled into life in her hand she threw. The Master laughed, throwing his head back as his body bowed by the force of the sound. His arrow thudded into her shoulder as her knife pierced through the vile man's heart, through his body as it turned to ash and sunk into the wall before dissolving. From the place where the Master had been standing a white mist appeared slowly in the air. The essence of the Master.

Crying out, Tori sprang forward and touched the mist, ignoring the sharp sting of pain in her shoulder where the arrow was embedded. The mist shuddered and began to darken at her touch, and shrink. But thoughts began to invade her mind, thoughts of doubts she hadn't realized were there.

Love had been the key to the Master's destruction. But was Derek's love of her enough? Was his loving her like a sister strong enough to defeat the master? Was her love for him as a brother enough? What if it wasn't? What if she had to have more? What if she needed to love him more?

The Master's laugh shuddered through her frame and she heard Derek gasp as if in pain. No, she thought furiously. It was enough! It had to be enough! Because he wouldn't accept her love any other way! Even if she did love him as more then just a brother, even if she went so far as to reveal that she was in love with him and he turned away from her, it would always be enough! Because it existed and it was real.

The laughter turned into a rageing scream and the mist slowly darkened and darkened and shrank and shrank.

* * *

Derek watched as Tori touched the mist and felt the resounding power of the Master sing through their hands and a gasp escaped him. He heard the evil laughter of the Master shudder down his spine and felt the doubts that he had within himself.

What if it wasn't enough to just love her like a sister? What if he wanted more? Craved more? What if he tried to take more and she didn't return the affections? Could he handle the rejection, handle the utter breaking of his heart? What would he do if she didn't love him back?

He turned his head and found Tori staring into his eyes and he saw his doubts reflected back at him. And suddenly he didn't have a need to doubt, a need to worry. And with that revelation, his heart swelled.

"Tori I—"

"Derek I—"

They paused blushing and looked away. It would seem to any outsider looking in that now was not the time for this to occur, suspended as they were between triumph and defeat, but even as it happened, the mist slowly turned a deep blue, nearly black, and reduced in size until it was barely this size of Tori's small hand.

"I love you!" Both exclaimed at the same time, both looking eagerly into the other's eyes to see their reaction, oblivious to their surroundings as they concentrated on the feelings within. A piercing scream rippled through the air, breaking the moment and their heated gaze.

Tori looked up at the mist still touching her hand as it darkened and shrunk, and shrunk and darkened until with a pop it disappeared. Taken slightly aback, Derek stepped away, drawing Tori with him through their still joined hands.

"What happened?" Derek demanded, looking around, searching for a hidden enemy. "It isn't over yet, is it? It can't be! Nothing is that easy." He must have missed something while he was confessing his undying affection for Tori, something he wanted to be embarrassed about now, but wouldn't allow himself to be.

"But it isn't that easy Derek. Don't you see? You figured out the key!" Tori smiled at him as one by one the candles in the room slowly burned into life, filling the once desolate room with a bright, warm light. But unlike when the Master had done it, this didn't conjure feelings of dread. This filled the body with a light sense of content.

"No I didn't Tori! I still don't know what the key is," He gave her a puzzled look and she frowned at him. If he hadn't figured it out, then how had it worked? How had they won?

"You mean… you didn't know that the key to his demise was love?" Tori frowned at him, but she knew that it had worked. The presence that had been weighing on her mind ever sense that first summons by the Master was gone. The Master was gone. It was over. It had to be over.

"No! I didn't know. I simply said what I truly felt. Tori, I do love you."

Her puzzled frown softened into a happy little grin. "As I you, Derek," Then she giggled and he felt his heart beat for her. Everything about her made him react, made him love her that much more; her smiles, her frowns, her laughter, her tears, even her anger. He loved her, loved her, loved her. It repeated over and over, with every beat of his heart, a heart that had belonged to her for the longest of times. It felt like his heart had belonged to her since forever.

Apart of him wondered if he had always loved her, for surely, when he had seen her that first time in the tavern he had found himself thinking about her always. And the boy, Torick had always reminded him of someone. It wasn't until he discovered who Tori really was that he realized the boy had reminded him of whom he truly was, the woman. It was very possible that he had always loved her.

He had been such a fool to deny it for so long, never knowing how wonderful it felt to have the truth flood him. He smiled over his own folly. He should have known that he couldn't hide from his true feelings, or from her. She had proven to be stubborn, why shouldn't his need to love her, a part of her surely, be as stubborn?

"What is that smile for?" Tori demanded, as she grabbed his other hand, so they were connected through both. A circle one could say.

"For my stupidity. I should have told you sooner that I loved you, Tori, for surely I do love you with my whole being. But is he really gone?" Tori nodded.

"Lee, she told me something, something that I didn't understand before. She said, 'the power of words is nothing compared to that gift that has been given to you'. The power of words, of course, referred to my magic. But I had been puzzled by the gift part. Until I thought of it in a different light, in a light regarding you. By gift, she meant you, Derek. And your love.

"The reason Lee didn't succeed was because she didn't trust herself, or the gift of love that Kyle had given her. She didn't trust and she didn't accept it, and therefore she couldn't wield it against the Master. The only weapon that she had against him that could make the final blow. The Master thrived on power and on utter obedience. But because of the way he ruled he could never have the love of his subjects, because they didn't have a choice in whether they followed him or not. So instead of changing his ways so he could have their love, he made himself able to live without it, made his life completely devoid of it. And by doing that, he made it his greatest weakness. Something that Lee didn't have either because much like the Master, she had made her life without love. But because we both trusted in our love, both accepted it, we defeated him," she smiled, a wide, gorgeous smile, and Derek smiled in turn.

It made sense now, and he saw why they had won. And he smiled all the wider as he drew her closer to him, careful of her wound, which she seemed to have forgotten.

"It really was just that easy."

* * *

Kel, Dom and Derek's younger sister Mira along with Tori's royal family were all gathered in a warm room, sitting in a circle of seats in Tori's royal chambers, rarely used but still comfortable. Tori and Derek were huddled close hands intertwined as they retold the rather short, and unbelievable, story of their triumph. By the end, nearly all of their families faces conveyed variations of shock and disbelief.

"You mean to tell me," Novellee began as she sat back in her chair, her voice dry and skeptical, "that by declaring your love for each other, you defeated a centuries old demon like that?" She snapped to demonstrate her point.

Tori and Derek exchanged looks with each other before returning their focus to Novellee and nodding solemnly.

"Honey," she said to Burdock, "I think I want to take up my old profession again. I think this love thing is one easy as hell way to make some money!" laughter filled the room at her words, but Tori just shook her head. She still found it hard to believe that it had been that easy, and she, too, had had her doubts at first. But the one thing she didn't doubt was Derek's love for her.

"I think it's romantic!" Mira exclaimed with a dreamy sigh as she stared off.

"You would!" Derek shot back and the two began to bicker. Tori just sighed and shook her head. She heard a very slight laugh and turned her green-eyed gaze to Derek's mother, Lady Knight Kel. In turn, Kel looked back at her and mouthed, "Welcome to the family."

Tori nodded her thanks and sighed again. To think, only months before she had thought herself abandoned, her only family in the entire world Robert. So much had changed. She had changed! Everything was different then what it had been, including herself. And there were parts of her life that she could never get back. Parts that she ached for the loss of. But despite all that, she couldn't help but look to the future with a joy that nearly overwhelmed her.

"Enough!" Dom barked a smile spreading across his face, as Tori snapped back to reality and looked at him. "You two fight like cats and dogs. You always have. Give it a rest already! What I want to know is how you two met!" he nodded his head towards the closely linked couple.

"Yeah!" Mira chirped. "And what happened to that Torick guy you were going on about Derek? I thought he was your favorite new recruit or something. Why isn't he here with us? I mean, we should all celebrate together!"

Tori looked at her and then quickly at Derek before back at her lap, a blush heavy on her cheeks. She still couldn't believe that Mira had had a slight crush on her while she had been in disguise. And by the sound of her voice just now, still had a crush on. She was mortified and slightly uncomfortable with the fact that Mira had thought her a handsome boy.

They had yet to break it to Derek's family that she was Torick, and the Torianna from the tavern that night so long ago when everything had started. But they would tell them, sometime.

Definitely before the wedding.

A/N Tada! That's the end! So sad, I know. The end of the series too. Wow... you guys have been so supportive and I want to thank all of you. So...

Thanks to Gothamin, ..., Dana, incarnated-soul, Yogi75, cherryfearie, Beth, Magelight, ephona, Randomisation, Wingedrider, cylobaby, lippy, Fillipa, Flower kid, Tortalli, seabiscuit0810, demeanted-dreamer,Lain the Fluff-Master, Golden Keys, Propaganda,inc, cloverluck11, Maladay Euthanasia, Irish Violinist, Fry's Shadow, Zerrion of the Wind, A Dragon's Rose, Twist130, Kathryne of Tirragen,TP Freak, Tattooed Goddess, steph, okaliedokalie, Tidsmagi, Fantasylvr, emilybeesknees, hm, and Nobody is Somebody.

So, there it is. I'm taking a short break before posting my next story because I want to get it started in a ways before getting it out. So... look for me in a month or two. I have a feeling it'll be called Beyond Words, or something similiar to that. So yeah... look for me. And also, this series is now retired and I won't be using any of the characters or Serinda in my other stories for the time being. But if I do decide to use them there will be a A/N about it. lol. Thanks again to all of you who read this story and my other two as well. And to those that read AND reviewed, special thanks! Love you all!

Nubia


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